Law&Crime Sidebar - 14-Year-Old Girl Killed Trying to Protect Mom from Brutal Stabbing Attack

Episode Date: December 13, 2023

Authorities allege that 25-year-old Jean Pierre Salazar attacked Alejandra Cabrejo with a knife inside her Tampa apartment in November. When her 14-year-old daughter Mariana tried to stop him, she was also killed. Salazar fled to Maryland, where he was apprehended and then extradited back to Florida. The Law&Crime Network’s Jesse Weber sits down with former FBI agent Bobby Chacon to talk about the manhunt and where the case goes from here.SPONSOR:Save 10% on your entire POM Pepper Spray order by using code LAWCRIME10% at https://bit.ly/POM-SIDEBARHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo Editing - Michael DeiningerScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View Shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that

will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. We have a dead 14-year-old world that didn't deserve to be dead. Just try to protect your mother. Authorities in Tampa, Florida say a 25-year-old man who's now in their custody is responsible for the deaths of a mother and teenage daughter. We speak with retired FBI agent and attorney Bobby Chacon about the hunt for this alleged killer and what will happen next in the case. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by law and crime. I'm Jesse Weber. First responders came across this horrific scene at a Tampa, Florida apartment complex last

month where 35-year-old Alejandra Cabrejo and her 14-year-old daughter, Mariana, were brutally stabbed. And according to detectives, 25-year-old Jean-Pierre Ojeda Salazar got into an argument with Alejandra, who he had dated previously. Witness says that he grabbed a knife, started stabbing her when Mariana, her daughter, rushed in to try to save her own mother, he stabbed her too. That's the allegation. Alejandra died at the scene.

Mariana was rushed to a hospital, but she died from her injuries, really, really sad case. And this family friend, who's this witness that saw what happened, says that Salazar chased her out of the apartment, but she managed to get away. Police say Salazar then took off going all the way to Maryland, but U.S. Marshals tracked him down the very next day and extradited him back to Florida. Salazar appeared in a Tampa courtroom this week where a written statement from that witness was introduced. Anybody who's willing to kill a 14-year-old?

to save their own skin should not be free in our society. Now, Salazar's public defender argued to the court that we don't have all the answers yet. We don't know who introduced the knife into it. There is, I think it's very important here and very telling that there is no history of violence there, that there's no history of violence by Mr. Salazar. And in the end, the judge denied him bail. He's going to be locked up awaiting trial. And it's our understanding that he has been charged with one count.

of first degree murder and one count of second degree murder. I want to bring in right now retired FBI agent and attorney Bobby Chacon to talk a little bit more about this. Bobby, good to see you. Thanks for coming here on Sidebar. I first want to talk about how they apprehended him. And so quickly, right? So he goes from Florida to Maryland. They apprehend him the day after he's taken to custody to be more accurate by the U.S. Marshall's Capital Area Fugitive Task Force. Walk us through your thoughts on how they were able to get him so quickly. Well, the marshals, first of all, the marshals are probably the best in the world at tracking people down in this future of hunting role that is kind of their major role, their main role in law enforcement. And so, you know, the first thing you look at is the first thing they probably looked at is his prior addresses and where his family lives.

So that's where significant others live in his life that would provide him support. When people do something like this and they go on the run quickly like he did, usually they go somewhere they're familiar with, somewhere they've been before, or somewhere where there's somebody significant in their life that's going to provide them safe haven. And so those are the first things that they look at. Whereas they live before, where they're relatives or support network, because that's where they're going to go to right away. They may go if they have time from there somewhere else to get away from those areas.

but an immediate flee like this usually goes to somewhere where they have someone that's going to provide them with support and safe haven. Hey there, everybody. I want to talk to you right now about Palm, which is the next generation of pepper spray. You see, Palm's formula provides you with the necessary range and capacity that can give you and your loved ones some peace of mind. Now, if you're like, look, I don't want to mistakenly fire this. Well, here's the thing.

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anybody else who was around him. Well, when you have a fugitive like this that's basically accused of a really violent murder, you have to kind of have a sense of urgency. So you do find out where they are. And as soon as you see them, if you see them, say, coming and going from a house, you take them. Or if you know they're in a place, you usually have to get a warrant because it's not that person's place. So unless you see them enter that premises, if you just have somebody say you saw them, you know, they saw them and go in there, then you probably have to get a search warrant for that unless you've seen them go in there directly or unless that's their place of residence, which in this case it wasn't. So it's likely that they were on his tail.

They were already set up on a place and saw him either go in there or saw him coming and going for the place. You know, Bobby, I mentioned that you have this family friend, seemingly an eye witness to the attack. I mean, what stronger evidence can you get? Or is it? I mean, this could have been a very tumultuous situation, but you have this witness who says they saw the attack happened, provided a written testimony for this hearing. That feels like pretty much of a slam dunk.

Do you anticipate any ways a defense attorney could, you know, try to counteract that testimony? Well, you know, giving the defense attorney a little break because they just came on the case, the public defender that he had in court for the purposes of this hearing, You know, he reached out and he said, well, we don't know who introduced the knife into the situation. That's a very odd way of saying it, but it's a very defense attorney way of saying it. It really doesn't matter who introduced the knife.

Even if she picked up the knife as a self-defense thing, if he took it away from her, there's no dispute that he stabbed her to death and then he stabbed the child to death, basically. And with the eyewitness, you know, the thing is people have to remember in a bond hearing, the two issues are risk of flight or danger to the community. Well, the judge basically said he provides both. I mean, she said, the judge said, he represents both, a risk of flight because obviously he fled to Maryland and a danger to the community because of this very wanton and violent act that simply sprang out of a relationship.

Unlike, you know, we have a presumption of innocence and a lot of things, but in this kind of hearing, for the purposes of bail, a judge can consider the evidence and the weight of the case, the strength of the prosecution's case for the purposes of bail. And so in this case, the judge found that there is enough evidence, there's a certain strength to the prosecution's case to keeping him detained. So that's kind of a comment on the judge by the judge as to the strength of the prosecution's case. And I think that with an eyewitness, boy, this is going to be a very rough road for the defense

to say anything but, you know, you know, when you have, even if he tries to say, you know, he took the knife away and the struggle over the knife, he stabbed the ex-girlfriend, well, then you have the child, then you have a 14-year-old child who was brutally stabbed to death also. How does that result from self-defense? Well, he could try to say, you know, I thought my life was on the line. I have somebody else attacking me. Maybe I didn't realize what was happening. It was a heat of the moment. I was defending myself against Alejandra, then Mariana comes, and I was defending myself. Again, based on the facts of what we see, seems highly unlikely that a self-defense argument

would work, particularly since you talk about this eyewitness, he allegedly chased her out of the house. So even if you're an innocent party, chasing someone else out of the house, and thankfully this person is alive, but also running, you know, escaping to Maryland instead of staying there and explaining what happened, I think those two facts. are pretty bad for him as well. Yeah, absolutely. I think you're exactly right.

I think that the self-defense argument, while it might be made, is not going to prevail. And I think I'm surprised he wasn't charged with attempted murder of the witness because I think had the witness not escaped that house, you know, we only, we can't even imagine what would have happened to the witness.

And then what we would have, we would have three deceased people in that apartment with no witness. And then his case gets very much stronger. because then anything he alleges doesn't get rebutted and so you know it's it's a nightmare to think you know what would have happened had he been able to catch that witness but thankfully that witness escaped and you know obviously they don't have seemingly they don't have any reason to implicate him you know falsely so um yeah yeah this is gonna be a tough one and the idea the defense attorney saying

you know he has no history of violence i'll just say to that how many times do we cover killers who've never killed before or never committed a crime before, but they then decide to commit one of the worst atrocities that you can against another human being. I'm talking about the charges. Sorry, when I hear a defense attorney say like that, I always think that he has no history of violence having been caught for violence. That's fair. That's fair.

But even the times when they've never committed a crime, I mean, everybody starts somewhere and, you know, the situations happen. Talking about the charges, so long crime reporting that he's been charged with, one count, one count of first degree murder with a weapon, second degree murder with a weapon, an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Why do you think the two different murder charges here? You know, I think it's probably, you know, the witnesses statement read in court may not be the entire statement from the witness. I think they use, in these kind of hearings, they use just enough to give the judge reasons to hold them over for trial. But I think that the first

murder is probably against the ex-girlfriend because he intentionally was trying to kill her. And then in the spur of the moment, like you alluded to it, he might be saying, well, let's be clear. You have to have intent to kill for both, but if it's premeditated or not, right? That's what makes it first degree versus second. Right. And I think that the premeditation is probably towards the ex-girlfriend who had the dispute with.

And then the second-degree murder probably is the intentional killing of her, but not in a pre-meditation. meditated murder. Like, he didn't go there. He didn't have the right requisite intent. He had some intent to kill her, but he didn't have the premeditation where he might have had it towards the girlfriend. I don't know that. So that's my fear.

Second degree murder, if I'm reading this correctly, I like to think that I am in Florida. The unlawful killing of a human being when perpetrated by an act imminently dangerous to another and evincing a depraved mind regardless of human life, although without any premeditate his design his murder in the second degree right which means he probably was there to kill the girlfriend the ex-girlfriend right he didn't he didn't go over there to kill the 14-year-old daughter and he didn't start out wanting or desiring to kill the 14-year-old daughter but when she interceded and either was a witness and a defender of her mom then he turned to killing her as well so that's where the lack of premeditation may come in and just to be clear even if he didn't go over there

with the plan to kill her. If they got into a disagreement and he takes the knife and then kills her, that can still be first-degree murder. That's right. And, you know, the old phrase is, intense can be formed a moment. You know, premeditation doesn't have to be days and days of planning. Premeditation can actually happen in a moment because you take the knife and in that moment, you've already, you have the premeditation of stabbing her.

So, yeah, I think that that's where it comes in. Remember, all these, these. charges can be upgraded if they if they delve it deeper into that witness statement but i think you know this all happened fairly quickly um and based on the witness statement they knew what they had and and and so um you know that's what they went with you know the intent the intentional premeditation of killing the ex-girlfriend and then her daughter who comes in at the last moment to try to defend her mom and then he turns and he kills her as a reaction to her action of defending the mom Can we just talk a little bit more about what the judge said?

So Judge Caitlin said, again, a very powerful statement. It wasn't a sentencing hearing. It was at a bond hearing, which she ultimately denied in bond. We have a dead 14-year-old girl who doesn't deserve to be dead, just trying to protect her mother. Anybody who's willing to kill a 14-year-old to save their own skin should not be free in our society. Those are strong words for a bond hearing, right? Very strong. I mean, there was a couple of unusual things.

At a bond hearing, you don't usually have a witness. And this time, you had a witness in the form of a written statement read by a detective in court on the record. But, yeah, this was a case where they wanted to make sure that this guy did not get out. And so they presented the witness statement through a detective reading it into the record. And then the judge clearly making that member, he's going to get a trial where the presumption of innocence will prevail on the jury. The judge doesn't have that same restriction. And the judge is allowed to make those comments, is allowed to comment on the strength of the prosecution's case in the criminal procedure, what we call the criminal procedure, rules for a bond hearing. And that's the judge's role. The judge has to consider all of those things on the protection of the public.

And so the presumption of innocence doesn't prevail on the judge in these types of cases. They have to take into consideration the heinousness of the crime, the violence, the person. potential violence to the community, which obviously exists in someone that could do something like this. And you almost have to presume they did do it, but based on the strength of the prosecution's case, and then protect the public. The judge's role is to protect the public in this kind of situation, as well as ensure that this defendant is there for trial, so it doesn't flee. So that's the judge's responsibility. Just a really, really sad case about this beautiful mother and daughter taken so, so senselessly.

And, you know, family friends told local media that Alejandra and her daughter, they moved to the United States from Columbia a couple years ago. They were looking for a better life, not just for Mariana, but unfortunately, Alejandra leaves behind another young daughter and a young sister to Mariana. She was unharmed during the course of this, thank goodness. But really sad case. And now that he's been caught, this will move forward through the legal process. Bobby Chaconne, thank you so much, sir.

Good to see you. Great, good seeing you, Jesse. Thanks. And that is all we have for you right now here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. all episodes of this long crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.