Murder In High-Heels Provides Hooker Shooting Counterpoint

Days after a man is acquitted for killing a hooker, a woman uses the tools of that trade to kill a guy. Obviously it's all Texas.

Last week, we wrote about the acquittal of a man who gunned down a sex worker because she wouldn’t have sex with him. Apparently in Texas, someone taking your property at night is all the excuse you need to employ deadly force, even if the supposed “theft” involves an unarmed woman unwilling to have sex.

Blow me or be blown away. I think we’ve found the new state motto of Texas.

By the way, do you know what the state motto of Texas is? If you think it’s something badass like “Don’t Mess With Texas” (which actually isn’t that cool), you’re wrong. It’s “Friendship.” My proposal is way better.

Now comes the counterpoint to the open season on prostitutes…

Specifically, a woman in (obviously) Texas is charged with killing a man with a stiletto. Not the dagger, mind you. The streetwalker accoutrement:

A woman allegedly stabbed a 59-year-old man to death with a stiletto heel early Sunday morning at a Museum District condominium high-rise.

At about 4 a.m. Houston police responded to an assault in progress call at Parklane on 1701 Hermann Drive, said HPD spokesman Kese Smith.

Ana Trujillo, a 44-year-old woman, opened the door for police, who found the man’s body lying on the floor, Smith said.

Trujillo, whom police described as the man’s guest, now faces murder charges. The victim’s identity was not released.

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The victim was later identified as Professor Alf Stefan Andersson of the University of Houston, whose work focused on studying women’s hormones, which should launch a thousand inappropriate jokes at this moment, because misogyny is such a laugh riot.

Trujillo allegedly stabbed Andersson multiple times in the head with her heel. I’m no expert on high heels — Lat covers the peep-toe beat — but it seems to me that those things are ridiculously flimsy. From every experience I’ve ever had walking somewhere with a woman in heels, basically doing anything but slowly walking across a flat, recently graded, concrete sidewalk risks destroying the shoe. Yet it can pierce a man’s skull? Not once, but multiple times? Maybe Christian Louboutin should consider becoming a military contractor.

Trujillo claims she acted in self-defense. Is this case just trying to mine every ounce of irony out of wacky laws? First using a stiletto heel after a jury allows prostitute killing, and now a self-defense claim involving the literal item on which you stand your ground.

Self-defense in Texas is defined by Section 9.31 of the Texas Penal Code:

(a) Except as provided in Subsection (b), a person is justified in using force against another when and to the degree he reasonably believes the force is immediately necessary to protect himself against the other’s use or attempted use of unlawful force.

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So Trujillo needed to limit her response to the force reasonably and immediately necessary to thwart Andersson’s alleged attack. Multiple stab wounds in the head may have gone a bit far.

On the other hand, as we all now know, Section 9.42 authorizes deadly force if you think someone’s taking your property at night and you might not get it back.

Trujillo should argue that Andersson took $150 and still wouldn’t go down on her.

Man stabbed to death with stiletto heel in Museum District [Houston Chronicle]
UH prof confirmed as victim in stiletto heel killing [Houston Chronicle]

Earlier: Jury Sez: Killing a Hooker Is A-OK. Guess Which State!