Ana Trujillo testifies during the punishment phase of her trial on Thursday, April 10, 2014, in Houston. Trujillo, convicted of murder for fatally stabbing her boyfriend 59-year-old Alf Stefan Andersson with a 5 1/2 -inch stiletto shoe heel, told the jurors she killed him in a desperate attempt to save her own life during a brutal fight. (AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, Brett Coomer)HOUSTON – A Houston woman convicted of fatally stabbing her boyfriend with a 5 ½-inch stiletto heel told jurors Thursday that she killed him to save her own life during a brutal fight in which she was chased down, knocked into a wall and thrown over a couch.
Ana Trujillo took the witness stand for the first time in the two-week trial as part of the penalty phase, which will decide her sentence. During more than five hours of rambling testimony by mid-afternoon, Trujillo said that she had been repeatedly abused by men, including sexual assault by her first husband.
The jury convicted Trujillo on Tuesday of murder in last June’s killing of her boyfriend, 59-year-old Alf Stefan Andersson, at his home. Prosecutors say she pinned him down and stabbed him at least 25 times with the heel of her shoe. Trujillo and her lawyers said she acted in self-defense.
Trujillo told jurors Andersson became enraged and she fought for her life during a fight that lasted more than an hour. She said she tried to calm him down, but Andersson started yelling at her and Trujillo realized she could not talk him down.
“I became frightened. I did fear for my life. I felt he lost it,” she said, adding that she started striking him with the shoe anywhere she could.