An ex-boyfriend was found guilty of killing Yesenia Lopez Hernandez in front of her 17-year-old daughter in San Mateo County.
Jose Enrique Uriarte Martinez, 45, was found guilty on Tuesday of murder for killing Hernandez and attempted murder for stabbing her teenage daughter.
Prosecutors said Martinez told his 5-year-old son he was sorry right after killing his mother in Redwood City. Martinez “killed herself out of spite,” Hernandez’s daughter wrote.
After a two-week trial, the decision was given. 18 witnesses were called by the prosecutors and spoke on the stand.
Hernandez, who was 41 years old, had a protection order out against Martinez because he had abused a woman in the past. Judges said the killer and victim had been together for five years and had a boy together.
According to prosecutors, Hernandez told Martinez that she was going to move out with their young son in the summer of 2023, when they were living in different apartments.
Police say that Martinez broke into his ex-girlfriend’s Redwood City flat with a key on July 30, 2023, at 12:30 a.m. and started beating her with a knife. A GoFundMe page says that Martinez stabbed Hernandez’s daughter when she tried to protect her mother.
“He stabbed the victim several times in the chest, neck, and shoulder. He also stabbed the victim’s 17-year-old daughter in the chest.” “The defendant went into the bedroom, told the five-year-old son he was sorry, and then left,” the District Attorney’s Office wrote.
When police arrived at the flat, the mother and daughter were still alive and bleeding from stab wounds. The DA’s office said Martinez was found outside the crime scene covered in blood by deputies.
Hernandez later died in the hospital, but her daughter lived.
Judge Kevin Dunleavy will give Martinez his sentence on December 13.
