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Mom Found Guilty Of Killing 33-Year-Old Daughter, Shoving Crucifix Down Her Throat
Her terrified boyfriend discovered her body, splayed out like a cross.
An Oklahoma woman was found guilty of killing her adult daughter by shoving a crucifix down her throat, CBS News reported.
A jury found Juanita Gomez, 51, guilty of first-degree murder in the 2016 death of her daughter, 33-year-old Geneva Gomez, who Juanita reportedly believed was possessed by the devil.
Geneva Gomez’s body was discovered by her boyfriend, Francisco Merlos, who had come to visit Gomez in order to win her back two days after they broke up, the Chicago Tribune reported. Juanita Gomez let him inside her house.
"I hugged her and said I was sorry for what happened on Thursday," Merlos said when he testified in court. “I was like ‘where's my girl,' and she said ‘she's in the room.' Usually, my girl is real happy. She'd say “I'll be right out, baby,' or something like that. But, it was just the TV going on, there was no sound or anything.”
Merlos found his girlfriend’s corpse with her arms spread out as if she was hanging on a cross. She was heavily bloodied, with deep wounds all over her face and head, police said. She had a large crucifix placed on her chest.
Merlos told jurors that the body he discovered was nearly unrecognizable, according to NewsOK.
“[She] was laying on her back with the cross on her chest, and you couldn't even recognize her face,” he said.
In terror, Merlos tried to leave, only for Gomez to put him in a headlock and begin mumbling about the devil and money, he testified in court.
Juanita Gomez confessed to police that she had punched her daughter and forced a crucifix and a medallion down her daughter’s throat until blood gurgled up from her mouth, CBS reported. She then reportedly told police that she saw her daughter die and arranged her body in the shape of a cross.
She then attempted to clean her house and her daughter, she said.
Juanita Gomez said she was attempting to “rid Satan from her daughter’s body” during the struggle, which left her with swollen hands and bruised arms.
A psychologist examined Gomez and found her competent to stand trial. The psychologist said that Gomez was malingering by faking memory problems in order to launch an insanity defense.
Gomez’s trial began this month and included gruesome images of Geneva’s corpse and a recording of her traumatized boyfriend calling 911.
Jurors recommended that the judge sentence Gomez to life in prison without parole.
[Image: Oklahoma City Police]
