MIAMI – The jurors who recently found a man guilty of murder and burglary agreed on Monday that he should pay for killing an 11-year-old girl in Miami by spending the rest of his life in a Florida prison.
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez accepted the jury’s recommendation and sentenced Miguel Ruiz Lobo, 51, to two consecutive life sentences without parole.
The penalty phase of Ruiz Lobo’s trial for the murder of Martha Guzman on June 22, 2014, in an apartment in Miami’s Little Havana, started on Thursday after the jury’s conviction.
Ruiz Lobo’s trial started on April 3 with emotional testimony that included Martha’s mother and sister who both found Martha bleeding on the floor — with a knife sticking out of her neck. She later died at Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center.
Detectives accused Ruiz Lobo of slashing the girl’s wrists and stabbing her in the neck while attempting to stage a suicide at the scene of the murder.
Prosecutors relied mostly on DNA evidence and surveillance video. Jurors learned that by scratching her killer, Martha collected DNA to identify him. The video showed him arriving at the apartment shortly before 10:30 a.m., and leaving at about 11 a.m.
The motive: Miami-Dade Assistant State Attorney Laura Adams told the jury during her opening statement that Ruiz Lobo was mad at Martha for having dared to ask her mother to break up with him. Her mother attributed the breakup to Ruiz Lobo’s alcohol abuse.
Ruiz Lobo has been in the custody of Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation since July 21, 2014. Records show he was held without bond on charges of first-degree murder, burglary of an occupied dwelling, and sexual battery on a minor by an adult. Prosecutors later dropped the sexual battery charge.
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- Aug. 7, 2014: Miguel Ruiz Lobo indicted in death of 11-year-old girl
- July 22, 2014: Miguel Ruiz Lobo proclaims innocence in Miami girl’s death
- July 22, 2014: Miguel Ruiz Lobo arrested in 11-year-old Miami girl’s death