Interview with woman who severed penis in Houston

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Exclusive interview with woman accused of severing husband's penis

In an exclusive interview with Eyewitness News, Delmy Margoth Ruiz told her side of the story. She's accused of severing her husband's penis.

By Jessica Willey

ABC13 Eyewitness News

(11/03/04) — She says she's a victim, but prosecutors tell a different story. The woman accused of cutting off her husband's penis spoke exclusively to Eyewitness News.

Delmy Ruiz told us she just couldn't take the abuse anymore. So while her husband recovers in the hospital, she believes she's safer in jail away from him.

Ruiz surrendered to authorities Wednesday afternoon and then sat down in a fourth floor jail cell in downtown Houston. She's demanding justice. From behind bars, she says "I'm the victim here".

Ruiz went on the run Friday. Authorities claim the 45-year-old woman who cleans houses for a living severed her common law husband's penis with a knife as he slept inside her home on West Lorina near Airline in north Harris County. According to a probable cause affidavit, Ruiz told her daughter she had thrown the body part out the back door and a black dog picked it up.

The victim, Rene Nunez, awoke in a pool of blood. Eighty percent of his penis was gone and still has not been recovered. He went straight to the hospital.

In an exclusive jail interview, Ruiz uses abuse as her defense. "I was sick of all the abuse. He would beat me up. I was threatened, a prisoner in my own house. He was always mistreating me, so I was afraid for my life. Just last week, he abused me again to the point of rape."

According to authorities, Nunez did have a history of domestic violence. In fact, Harris County court online records show there was a protective order filed last year, prohibiting him from contact with Ruiz.

From inside the jail, she claims he would often violate the order, return to her house and abuse her. Ruiz never admitted to the crime. Instead she says, "I deny what has happened because of everything that has happened to me."

A judge has denied her bond. The prosecutor on the case believes she's a flight risk.

"I know that previously she's been in trouble with immigration, which calls into question her status and she's a native citizen of another country, El Salvador," said prosecutor Mike Trent.

Ruiz's attorney argued the flight risk, saying she has family here and a house. We are told she's in the US legally. However, she does have a criminal background of assault and on Wednesday, the prosecutor alluded to the possibility she's been involved in human smuggling. Her attorney said that was the first he's heard of it.

Her next court date is November 23.