DALLAS (AP) - A North Texas woman who prosecutors say stabbed a man 130 times and castrated him at a Dallas hotel room has told jurors at her trial that she was defending herself after being sexually assaulted.
Cristal Paulette Richardson is charged with murder in the April 2012 death of Cedric Lamont Owens.
Authorities say they found Owens’ bloody and naked body in the hotel room. In addition to the stab wounds and castration, his throat had been cut. Richardson, who was also naked and covered in blood, was sitting outside in a stairwell, according to police.
Richardson, 29, told jurors Friday that she can’t remember everything that happened on the night of the killing, the Dallas Morning News reported (https://bit.ly/1eykZiA ).
“I do know that I didn’t chase this man like a dog. I didn’t want him to kill me,” Richardson said, tearfully. “I’m not a killer. I’m not a murderer. I’m somebody’s mother.”
Richardson testified that on the night of Owens’ death, she had used cocaine, PCP, marijuana and alcohol. She said she blacked out, but testified that she was not high at the time of the slaying
She told jurors that Owens raped her after he believed she had ripped him off during a drug deal.
Richardson said that after the assault, the two began fighting. She told jurors that she grabbed a knife because she was scared and he took it from her. During the fight, she grabbed it back.
“He kept telling me he was going to kill me,” she said. “I felt my life was in danger.”
Richardson said that she doesn’t remember stabbing Owens 130 times or castrating him.
But Dallas County prosecutors Josh Healy and Brandi Mitchell said while questioning Richardson that her faulty memory is just her way of only telling jurors facts that help her version of events.
Richardson also told jurors that she had been sexually assaulted as a child and later as an adult.
She faces up to life in prison if convicted.
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Information from: The Dallas Morning News, https://www.dallasnews.com
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