A 44 year-old Von Ormy woman has been sentenced to 30 years in prison of the September 2011 murder of her boyfriend. Beatrice Ann Ibanez pleaded guilty to stabbing Alfred Ramirez, 46, in the heart. Ibanez initially claimed self-defense after the murder. But prosecutors had a problem with that defense because it was the same one Ibanez used in 1996 after she stabbed another boyfriend to death. Those charges were dropped.
According to a report in the San Antonio Express, in the 1996 slaying of 39 year-old Jesse Cardenas, Ibanez claimed he hit her in the back of the head with a beer bottle, knocking her unconscious. When she came too, she told Cardenas to leave. He slapped her in the face with the back of his hand, knocking her to the floor. When he still would not leave, Ibanez went at him with a knife.
In the slaying of Ramirez, the defendant claimed that he hit her in the face with a plastic baseball bat. Police who arrived on the scene noted that Ibanez did have facial injuries. Ramirez had also previously been convicted for assaulting her.
Prosecutors told the court that Ibanez gave police several different versions of what happened that night. Initially she said that she stabbed the victim as he choked her and then later he was attacked as he slept on her couch.
In handing down the 30 year sentence, which was the maximum allowed under the plea agreement, the judge said to Ibanez, “I would have thought one dead body in your history would have kept you out of the courtroom.”
If you have been accused of a violent crime, contact an experienced San Antonio criminal defense attorney to represent you, especially if there are extenuating circumstances to your situation.