Father says he is ready to face his daughter's accused killer in court

MIAMI – Jorge Guzman, 51, said he was nervous Wednesday.

He also said he misses his 11-year-old daughter Martha, a sixth-grader at Lincoln-Marti in Little Havana, who was killed.

"She is resting in peace in Olanchito, in Honduras," Guzman said.

Her accused killer, Miguel Ruiz Lobo, 42, was set to appear in Miami-Dade court in front of Judge Stacy Glick Thursday. Guzman plans on being there.

"There is no sense in attacking him. I'll be sitting among guards, and I know justice will be done," Guzman said in Spanish. "He will get the electric chair. I know he will."

Both Guzman and Ruiz Lobo are from Honduras, and had children with Amaury Alvarenga, 40.

On June 22nd, Alvarenga left her Little Havana apartment to run an errand. When she returned she found Martha dead in a pool of blood in the living room.

When police arrived the girl had a knife sticking out of her throat, deep cuts in her wrists and her lips were swollen. Alvarenga was so distraught she was hospitalized.

Alvarenga told police that the father of her three-year-old boy, Ruiz Lobo, had been stalking her since they broke up earlier this year. He was her live-in boyfriend for about four years. There was domestic violence and substance abuse, she said.

Relatives said Martha had been suffering, because of the abusive relationship her mom had with Ruiz Lobo. She started cutting herself. The impulse-control behavior problem is often used to cope with emotional pain, intense anger and frustration.

Martha had asked her mom to end the relationship with Ruiz Lobo. He was aware of Martha's struggles, so police believe he tried to stage a suicide. He failed. Police said that he cut her tendons so severely that she couldn't have stabbed herself in the throat or vice versa.

"What he did was horrific," Guzman said in Spanish.

Ruiz Lobo said he is innocent. But surveillance video shows him entering the Little Havana building at 10:28 a.m. and leaving at 11 a.m. It was about the time, the  medical examiner said Martha was killed.

Detectives also found Ruiz Lobo's DNA in the girl's nails. And he had scratches on his face and arms, when police were questioning him.

Ruiz Lobo is facing a first-degree murder charge and armed burglary and assault on occupants. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. He will be in court about 9:30 a.m. Steven Yermish is his defense attorney.