HOUSTON – The woman who killed her boyfriend with a stiletto shoe says she thinks the jury didn't believe her self-defense story because she had never made police reports when she says her boyfriend abused her before.
Ana Trujillo spoke to Local 2 Investigates one month after a jury convicted her of murder.
"I regret many things. They say that [the incident is] my fault because I have no proof that he hurt me because I never reported it. I was protecting him," Trujillo said in a nearly hour-long interview from prison.
Trujillo said she's the victim and still loves the man she killed.
"I loved him for the person he wanted to be. He wanted to change badly, but he couldn't," she said.
Trujillo says the night she stabbed Stefan Andersson, he was attacking her after the two spent time at a bar near his luxury condo in the Hermann Park area. They had had a nice night out.
Trujillo says Andersson was drunk and attacked her when the two returned to his condo. She said the two had enjoyed a nice evening prior.
"I walked in and he just turned around and completely changed. He was accusing me that I was going to leave and I wasn't going to come back. That wasn't the first time he did that," she said. "The pain was so excruciating and all I had was my shoe so I just took my shoe off and I didn't know what else to do and I just started to hit him with it and asked him to please let me go."
Trujillo was arrested for the murder.
"I didn't kill him. He attacked me and I defended myself. I was wearing the shoe I was striking him with," she said. "Everything is (being) misconstrued. I feel this is an injustice."
Trujillo did not take the stand during the guilt of innocence phase of her trial.
"Now I wish I had," she told Local 2 Investigates reporter Jace Larson. "My attorney advised me not to."
She says she is speaking out because there are people who are victims of abuse who are afraid to report it to police. Trujillo says if she had reported the abuse it would have been documented and the evidence would have shown Andersson was a violent person.
"The media and everyone has taken the story and has almost turned it into a joke or something funny. These are two real lives. We were two real people and they only want to see what they want to see," she said. "They want someone to be the scapegoat."
Trujillo will be eligible for parole in 30 years, but is serving life in prison.
"I feel like I've been cut open, gutted; my whole life has been a circus and an exhibition. They've turned me into someone I'm not. They accused me of something I didn't do. I loved this man and I protected him," Ana Trujillo said.
Have a story idea for investigative reporter Jace Larson? Email him or send him a message on Facebook.
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