Nearly 10 years after an 11-year-old girl’s death, DNA evidence found under her fingernails helped convict the man accused of her murder, NBC Miami reported.
Miguel Ruiz Lobo, 51, of Miami was convicted Friday on first-degree murder and burglary charges for the killing of Martha Guzman in June 2014 after attempting to make her death look like a suicide, NBC Miami reported. When Guzman’s body was discovered by family members, Lobo reportedly told responding officers that the young victim had been suicidal. Forensic experts at the trial, however, disproved those claims, telling the jury the wounds to Guzman’s body were not self-inflicted.
Skin found under Guzman’s fingernails indicated that she had fought back against her killer. A later DNA analysis revealed the skin found under Guzman’s fingernails matched that of Lobo, forensic investigator Sharon Hinez told the jury, according to Local 10 News. Assistant State Attorney Laura Adams reminded the jury of this evidence in her closing arguments, telling the panel she believed the child had fought for her life, NBC Miami reported. (RELATED: Police Use Cigarette Butt, DNA Testing To Solve 52-Year-Old Murder Case)
Jury convicts man accused of killing 11-year-old girl in Miami https://t.co/FGWrO1uchM pic.twitter.com/Z4KOanEgVj
— WPLG Local 10 News (@WPLGLocal10) April 14, 2023
The multiple injuries inflicted on Guzman included multiple stab wounds to her throat, knife scrapes across her body, and a wrist slashed to the bone, the Miami-Dade Chief Medical Examiner revealed to the jury, according to NBC Miami. “She had three cuts in the neck and the knife stuck in her throat,” Guzman’s mother, Amaury Albarenga, testified April 4, according to Local 10 News.
Prosecutors also claimed surveillance video showed Lobo entering and leaving the crime scene at the time of the murder, though defense attorney Steven Neal Yermish argued the footage was not clear enough to capture a positive identification of the suspect, NBC Miami reported.
A motive for the killing remained unclear after the trial’s eight-day proceedings, but police allege Lobo murdered the child in an act of vengeance after being kicked out of the apartment by Albarenga, the outlet stated.
“This was personal,” Adams told the jury, according to Local 10 News.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in a separate sentencing proceeding scheduled for April 20, NBC Miami reported.