Houston woman sentenced to 8 years for penectomy

[SplitDik (imported)]

There is a picture of the woman with the Houston Cronicle article: http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/news/072205 ... penis.html

July 26, 2005, 4:36PM

Woman who cut off ex-lover's penis gets 8 years in prison

Delmy Ruiz may be deported after her prison term

By ANDREW TILGHMAN

Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

A woman who sliced off her former lover's penis with a knife was sentenced to eight years in prison Monday after jurors spent more than seven hours weighing her violent crime against her claims of abuse and rape.

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Delmy Ruiz, 49, showed no emotion when she heard the sentence. She had requested probation, but the prosecutor recommended 20 years in prison.

The jury's deliberations were "very tough," in part because of the sympathy that many felt for Ruiz, said a 51-year-old juror from Houston who declined to give his name.

Ruiz, a native of El Salvador, was a legal resident of Texas at the time of her arrest, but her conviction for aggravated assault may result in her deportation after she leaves prison.

She wept on the witness stand last week as she told jurors that she maimed Rene Aramando Nuñez, 35, because he had raped her and then demanded oral sex at her north Harris County home on Oct. 28.

"The jury's job is never easy," Assistant District Attorney Mike Trent said after the trial. "So I respect what they did."

Trent accused Ruiz of planning the attack by luring Nuñez to her home, then tying him up while he slept.

"I don't believe she was attacked at any time," Trent said. "There's no reason to believe that sexual assault or rape had anything to do with this. She was not a victim."

Texas law allows a person to use deadly force when facing the immediate threat of sexual assault.

"I think she was a victim who fought back, and she was not treated fairly," defense attorney Tom Radosevich said.

Ruiz's niece, Maria Orrellana, 22, of Dallas, said the trial was unfair.

"(Nuñez) manipulated her. He was obsessive over her," she said. "At least he won't be able to bug anymore women or bother anymore women like that anymore."

Nuñez twice pleaded guilty to assaulting Ruiz in 2003. The terms of his two-year felony probation, still in effect when he went to her home in October, forbade any contact with her.

Nuñez wore a catheter and medical bag strapped to his leg as he testified last week. He showed jurors scars from his forearm, where doctors took a skin graft to help reconstruct his penis.

He said he had no memory of the assault, recalling only that he fell asleep on the bed, felt something hot and blacked out before learning about his injury at the hospital. He said Ruiz had asked him to come to her home that morning to sign some documents.

Photographs of Nuñez's injury included what looked like rope burns on his ankles, indicating that Ruiz may have tied him up before the assault.

Prosecutors suggested Ruiz planned the crime out of jealousy, believing Nuñez had slept with other women.

Nuñez testified he initially lied to police after the attack, saying that Ruiz showed up at his workplace with flowers and invited him over because she wanted to borrow his truck.

Ruiz will have to serve at least four years before she can become eligible for parole, at which time she could be transferred directly into custody of federal immigration officials.

Ruiz acknowledged in the trial that she was deported to El Salvador in the 1980s after failing to provide immigration officials with adequate paperwork

July 23, 2005, 9:01PM

Woman who cut off ex-lover's penis convicted

The jury could give her up to 20 years in prison

By ANDREW TILGHMAN

Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

Delmy Ruiz and her attorney Tom Radosevich react after hearing she had been found guilty of aggravated assault at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center on Friday. She has asked for probation.

Patrick M. Reed / For the Chronicle

Delmy Ruiz and her attorney Tom Radosevich react after hearing she had been found guilty of aggravated assault at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center on Friday. She has asked for probation.

Jurors rejected a north Harris County woman's claims of self-defense Friday, convicting her of aggravated assault for slicing off her estranged lover's penis with a knife.

Delmy Ruiz, 49, closed her eyes and lowered her head as she heard the guilty verdict through headphones and a court translator. She has asked for probation, but could face up to 20 years in prison when the trial resumes Monday.

"She took away everything that makes him a man. He will never get to experience sexual pleasure again. How do you assign a penalty or a value to that?" Assistant District Attorney Mike Trent told jurors as he recommended they give her the maximum sentence.

"You don't have the right to cut it off because you've been raped. You have the right to call the police," Trent said.

Ruiz, a native of El Salvador, tearfully testified Thursday that she maimed Rene Aramando Nuñez, 35, because he had raped her and then demanded oral sex at her north Harris County home on Oct 28.

Texas law allows a person to use deadly force when facing the immediate threat of sexual assault. Defense attorney Tom Radosevich had urged jurors to consider Ruiz's claims of ongoing physical and sexual abuse.

"Imagine having sex when you don't want to," Radosevich said.

He asked the six women on the jury to consider such a situation.

"And for the men," he said in closing, "I want each one of you to think how you would feel if you were lying on your belly while someone violated you and then he made you (perform oral sex). And there's a knife there."

Nuñez twice pleaded guilty to assaulting Ruiz in 2003. The terms of his two-year felony probation, still in effect when he went to her home in October, forbade any contact with her.

Nuñez testified

[dickoff (imported)]

penectomy shouldnt be illegal. it should be common and celebrated.