Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Son Decapitates Mom Before Surprise Birthday Party: Police

Starting point is 00:00:00 Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Officers received a call for service for an unknown trouble. The 911 caller stated that a family member was inside of the house and was deceased and that the victim's head had been cut off. A woman who should have been celebrating her birthday instead is found dead, decapitated, and now her son is behind bars charged with the crime. This was a very gruesome, bloody scene. I have the disturbing case of Teresa Cruz Rubio and how family members are remembering her.

Starting point is 00:00:40 Thanks for joining me for Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. This is one of those cases that is incredibly gruesome and almost unbelievable. Teresa Cruz Rubio was getting ready to celebrate her 50th birthday on September 27th, but sadly, she would not live past 49. Her son, the son that Rubio was actually trying to help, is now accused of murdering her. Rubio's family was throwing her a surprise birthday party in Glendale, Arizona, where she lived. Her family became concerned when they couldn't reach her. Going back to how suspicion came about for this incident is the

Starting point is 00:01:16 family, the victim's sister to be specific, could not get a hold of the victim throughout the evening. She called her at about 3.40 p.m. and was able to speak the victim throughout the evening. She called her at about 3.40 p.m. and was able to speak to her on the phone. This all took place on the 27th, Friday. And the victim confirmed that she was going to appear and be at a family gathering that they had set up, ultimately which was a surprise birthday party for her. The victim failed to show up to the party, so the family became suspicious and began to try to look into the house and went over the house to try to get a hold of her to no avail. The doors were locked. The windows were locked. There was no sign of forced entry.

Starting point is 00:01:56 This was obviously completely out of character for Teresa Cruz Rubio. Her family hired a locksmith who arrived and unlocked the door. What her family found inside sounds like something out of a horror movie. And actually, it's much, much worse than that. This is real life. And this is someone they loved, someone they were supposed to spend the evening with, celebrating one of life's many milestones. Instead, family found a grisly scene. A probable cause statement says when officers arrived, the front door to the

Starting point is 00:02:25 residence was open. Just inside the residence, victim one was lying underneath a blanket. The victim's head was at her side away from her body. Inside the small apartment, there was blood throughout. The kitchen sink had a knife block with knives in it. Officers also observed the shower in the bathroom was still on. The victim suffered a full decapitation and had numerous stab wounds to her abdomen, chest, and arms, to which an autopsy will later be conducted. What the family members of Teresa Cruz Rubio saw, along with police, had to be one of the most disturbing and traumatic things that any person could ever see. Teresa Cruz Rubio, who hours earlier was alive, was in her apartment

Starting point is 00:03:11 and there was blood everywhere. Her head was actually laying next to her body. Police had to be sure that no one else was injured. They continued to look through the house to make sure there was nobody else still inside. And in the kitchen sink, they noticed there was a knife block with several knives located. The search was now on for a killer and it wouldn't take long for police to figure out who may have wanted to hurt Teresa Cruz Rubio. So during the investigation with officers and detectives on scene, they learned that the victim, the sister, the woman who had called 911 and who was on scene, loaned the victim a burgundy GMC Yukon SUV and that was missing from the residence. Police learned that the victim's son, Alejandro Gonzalez, lives with the victim and recently got out of jail for an unrelated matter

Starting point is 00:03:59 for felony charges from another agency. And it was reported that he had mental conditions. Officers on scene noted that, again, that there was no signs of forced entry and all the doors and windows to the residence were locked. As detectives furthered their investigation, they learned that video surveillance in the area of nearby residences as well as traffic cameras in the area, had located the GMC Yukon between the hours of 4.50 and 5 p.m. in the area of where the crime occurred, and he was observed, Alejandro was observed driving the GMC Yukon. Upon further looking at video footage, Alejandro never

Starting point is 00:04:42 returned to the residence. Police launched a massive search for that burgundy SUV as they searched the apartment for evidence. While processing the scene, detectives and identification technicians noticed that there was a knife located in the kitchen sink, which appeared to have blood and hair on it. Early the next morning, police say they found Alejandro Gonzalez and the SUV. Alejandro is Teresa's son. Upon detectives getting a hold of Alejandro and taking him into custody, they noticed that he had evidence of blood on his body and clothes, along with injuries to his hands and arms. I want to take just a moment to tell you about a great free app that will give you cash back on things like food and gas. It's called Upside, and they're a sponsor of Crime Fix. This is not a confusing rewards program. Upside will give you real money back that goes straight into your bank account. Just download Upside, click on it, and claim an offer and pay with a debit or credit card as usual. Upside works at places like Shell,

Starting point is 00:05:40 Exxon, 7-Eleven, Taco Bell, KFC, and Chipotle. To find out how much you could earn, click the link in the description or scan the QR code on your screen and use our promo code CRIMEFIX to get an extra 25 cents back on every gallon on your first tank of gas. That's promo code CRIMEFIX for extra cash back. Police say they interviewed Alejandro after reading him his rights, and he said his mom had picked him up from jail and taken him to her apartment. So he was staying with his mother after being released from jail. But then police said Alejandro Gonzalez admitted to stabbing his mom, but then he claimed that somebody else actually stabbed her first. He claimed he didn't do this alone. The affidavit says Alejandro admitted to smoking methamphetamines. Alejandro claimed he smoked meth with a, quote, black male who, quote, did something to his mom. Alejandro said he met the black male riding his bike in the neighborhood. Alejandro said the black male then put the knife to his throat and told him to do something. This almost reminds me of Susan Smith. She was the woman in South Carolina in the 90s

Starting point is 00:06:46 who claimed a black man for carjacking her with her two young sons in the car. She would, of course, later admit that she drowned her sons by driving her car into a lake. Police say Alejandro claimed the black man wanted to rape him, but then stabbed his mother, Teresa Cruz Rubio, instead. So he then joined in. The affidavit continues. Alejandro claimed the black male had already stabbed his mom. So I just, well, honestly, he was already cut. I don't know what he was doing, but she was already bleeding. I just started cutting a little bit. I just started cutting her head off because she was already stabbed in the neck. When I confirmed with him about cutting her head off, Alejandro said,

Starting point is 00:07:25 so she won't feel anything. You know, she was already stabbed so many times that I'm like, I don't know what he's going to do. Like, you know, Alejandro claimed there was another suspect involved, but no evidence pointed to this as the detectives looked through the scene and all evidence that they collected. However, detectives advised that the investigation is ongoing, and they are looking into these claims. There are other details, if you can even imagine, that are far more gruesome than what I've already told you. They're just too gruesome to repeat.

Starting point is 00:07:56 And police are acknowledging just how disturbing the crime scene was, not only for Rubio's family, but for the officers who responded to the call. It's absolutely horrific. It's horrific to the family who had to endure this. It's horrific to the officers who had to go and see this, detectives who had to be out there, identification techs who had to process the scene and really get into it and in depth into it. It's horrific to and traumatic to people who live in the area, worried about what kind of crimes are happening in their community. If it was something random, ultimately we know it wasn't at this point. But at the time it was probably very uneasy to the people who were in the area with

Starting point is 00:08:37 all the police activity. Alejandro Gonzalez is charged with premeditated first degree murder. Family members told police they believed Alejandro was capable of committing such a heinous crime. He is now being held on a $1 million bond. I think that when you have a situation like this where an individual was capable of murdering his mother in such a heinous crime like he did, this is a person that's liable to create violence anywhere they go. So when you have a situation like this, all of our officers get involved, try to get this person off the street as quickly as they can, because the last thing that they want is to see another family victimized in this way. I want to bring in Philip Dubay. He works as court appointed counsel in Los Angeles County. He's not affiliated with this case, though. Let's talk, Philip, about this case.

Starting point is 00:09:25 It's unbelievable to me. Mom, Teresa, goes and picks up her son from jail, brings him home. He tells cops he smoked some meth and then says a black man started killing my mom and then I joined in. Your thoughts? Well, first of all, it's very common when people who use drugs get released and they need a quick fix. And it's very possible to make up for lost time that he took a pretty truth be told that it only incriminated him even more, you know. But I do think it was some type of psychotic episode from the meth itself, which is very, very common. The problem is in the state of Arizona, it is not a defense. It is not even a defense if you want to put on a not guilty by reason of insanity type defense, because drug induced psychosis or voluntary intoxication is not deemed to be a mental disorder or a mental defect under Arizona law. They will only recognize the insanity defense if you are truly afflicted with a mental disorder and not one where you voluntarily choose to just go out and get loaded.

Starting point is 00:10:50 His family had said that he apparently had mental health issues anyway. So mental health, mix that with getting out of jail. You already have some issues up here. And then you take some meth. I mean, obviously, this is a recipe for disaster. Why blaming the black man? I mean, is that potentially part of some psychosis or is this just something some people do? Because police said, look, it's an open investigation. We're looking into it still. No evidence of this. But they have to dot their I's and cross their T's. But this is something we've seen in other cases where people blame somebody else. Your thoughts on that part? It's a very common bigoted excuse for a crime to say that, oh, you were hijacked by a couple of black guys with a gun, or there was a black intruder at my home, or a black guy was trying to extort us. It just makes it more salacious and more credible in their minds. But the police can see right through it,

Starting point is 00:11:51 especially when they don't see any evidence of an intrusion. They have her head there in the house. I'm sure they had a serological and biological evidence everywhere. There was just no evidence that somebody broke into that house and did it, no matter what race they may have been. I mean, how do you defend this case? I mean, it's just so gruesome. This poor woman died a horrific death. And I didn't even really get into many of the really horrific details of this. I mean, what I explained earlier was bad enough. I don't know how you defend this guy. This is the type of case that you age. The first thing you want to do is have him shrunk and make sure he's even competent to proceed. If he's not even competent, then he's going to go off to a

Starting point is 00:12:35 state hospital. He'll be administered involuntarily antipsychotic drugs until he, if and when, he is restored to competency. And that could take a while. And even then, after the dust settles, if they decide to seek death, then all of the mental health, the addiction type evidence can be used as mitigation in the penalty phase. So I think at most, all you're really going to do is spare his life. I think a jury would have a hard time executing him in any state, let alone Arizona. Have you ever heard of something like this where, I mean, mom picks him up? I mean, it's something out of a horror movie, Philip. Mom picks him up from jail, brings him home, you know, tries to take care of her son. She doesn't show up for her surprise 50th birthday party. And then she is found in this awful state.

Starting point is 00:13:28 And just the fact that her son, who she was trying to take care of, is accused of cutting off her head. I mean, it's just stunning to me. I've had it, but not in the familial context. I've had it where I've had a human trafficking homicide where the street sex worker was decapitated and the body was dumped in a hefty bag off the freeway here in L.A. And obviously the hope is that by removing the head, you won't be able to properly identify the person. But of course, that was spoiled through DNA and through fingerprint analysis of the decedent, you know. But it's not as uncommon as you might think. Another thing we see, too, is after the homicide, they set the whole place on fire, thinking they can destroy all the evidence. But yes, I have seen it, not necessarily in the mother-son or mother-daughter context. Well, it is truly, truly horrifying. I don't know if they'll go for the death penalty in this case because of the mental health issues and the drugs.

Starting point is 00:14:30 But what is your prediction on that? Do you think this is something they just they go forward with as first degree murder? Or do you think that they try to go for the death penalty? I think it's going to start off as a capital case. I think they're going to allege a special circumstance of some type of premeditation, lying in wait, torture type theory. And then as the case ages, defense counsel will hopefully be able to engage the prosecution in what I call mercy talks to show that, yes, maybe in society he's irredeemable and irreformable, but perhaps he can be put to some good use during a lifetime stretch in prison. So this is the type of case you work for what we call an LWAP type disposition, meaning life without parole. And I truly believe that that's how this will end up. I do. Wow. Philip Dubé, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Starting point is 00:15:24 Take care now. around her. She loved with all her heart and would do anything to see her family happy and successful. This has come with a heavy heart and her passing has come too soon, just before her 50th birthday. Words cannot even begin to describe the amount of pain and sorrow that this tragedy has brought to her loved ones. The GoFundMe page, as I mentioned, includes many photos of Rubio with her family. She's smiling. She was a much loved mother, wife, daughter, and aunt. Teresa Cruz Rubio's other son thanked people on the GoFundMe for their support. And he asked people to offer a prayer for his mom. He said she would have liked that. And they hope to have a funeral for her in the next couple of weeks. That's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.

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Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Son Decapitates Mom Before Surprise Birthday Party: Police

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Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Son Decapitates Mom Before Surprise Birthday Party: Police

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