A Harris County criminal court judge has refused to lower a $100,000 bond for Ana Fox Trujillo, the woman accused of killing a University of Houston researcher with a stiletto shoe last month.
But attorneys for the 44-year-old suspect — currently in custody on a charge of capital murder — remain optimistic that evidence they plan to present at an August bond hearing will secure Trujillo's release in advance of a trial that is sure to make national headlines.
Trujillo confessed to stabbing her then-boyfriend Alf Stefan Andersson, 59, after he allegedly tried to attack her during an argument. She is expected to offer a plea of self-defense, although her legal team would not yet confirm.
"The allegation is pretty severe, so I can understand where he [judge Brock Thomas] is coming from," Houston lawyer Jack Carroll, who now joins the defense alongside attorney Lott Brooks, explained to reporters after a brief Monday court session. "We'll get the bond reduced, if we don't bond her out in the meantime."
Appearing with Carroll were the suspect's mother and step-father, Maria and Russell Tharp, who said they drove from their home in Waco to show their love and support. "We'll do whatever it takes," Maria Tharp said.
News of the murder sent shock waves through the Museum District, where the Swedish-born Andersson lived in a luxury high-rise building along Hermann Park. The couple were know regulars at Bodega's, the Binz Street taco shop and bar from which the two left in a huff on the evening of the murder.
Assistant district attorney John Jordan told a district judge that on June 11 the couple had been drinking tequila at the bar when Andersson became angry after another man offered to buy Trujillo a drink. After returning to the condo at 2 a.m., the suspect claims her boyfriend became abusive as the two quarreled about plans to visit her daughter in Waco.
Police arrived at the scene shortly thereafter to find Anderson dead on the floor with dozens of wounds to his face, neck and head from a high-heel shoe. Still in the apartment, Trujillo was arrested on the spot.
Ana Fox Trujillo at a July 18 court appearance.
