Aaron Stevan Romo and Mirelle Mateus (Anaheim Police Department)
A 37-year-old man in California is facing a possible life sentence for killing his ex-girlfriend, luring the 24-year-old woman back to his apartment where he beat and strangled her to death on St. Patrick’s Day last year. A jury in Santa Ana on Thursday found Aaron Stevan Romo guilty of first-degree murder in the brutal slaying of Mirelle Mateus, authorities announced.
Jurors also convicted Romo on one count of felony domestic battery resulting in corporal injury and one count of felony imprisonment by menace, violence, fraud or deceit for a December 2022 attack on Mateus in which he threw the victim over a balcony railing.
According to a news release from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, Romo in the early morning hours of March 17, 2023, was involved in a fight outside of a bar that left him badly injured. He had just been thrown out of the bar by bouncers after being slapped by a woman who had rejected his advances, the East Bay Times reported.
Despite Mateus having a restraining order against him in connection with the December 2022 attack, Romo called his ex-girlfriend several times, asking her to pick him up. She finally agreed, and the couple went back to Romo’s apartment, which the two had previously shared.
A security guard at the apartment complex reportedly called the police after seeing Romo “violently” pull Mateus into the residence as she screamed for help.
“I’m not crazy, I’m not going in there,” the security guard reportedly said he heard Mateus scream before Romo dragged her inside.
Officers with the Anaheim Police Department reportedly responded to the scene and could hear voices coming from inside the apartment, but left because no one answered the door.
At trial, one of the responding officers testified that they waited outside of the door for about five minutes and “didn’t hear any active screaming,” so they decided they did not have exigency to enter the premise by force, the Los Angeles Times reported. She was killed less than an hour after police left the scene.
The victim’s family has already filed a lawsuit against the county and police, alleging that the officers acted negligently by not intervening and should have known Mateus had a restraining order against Romo over the December 2022 attack.
As previously reported, Mateus’ family became nervous when they could not get with her, leading her mother to search for the 24-year-old.
“The next day, Mateus’ mother became concerned when she noticed her daughter didn’t return home and she was unable to reach her on her cellphone,” the release states. “Mateus’ mother went to Romo’s apartment and found the apartment’s door open and Mateus dead in the bathroom. She had been badly beaten and strangled to death.”
After killing Mateus, Romo drove to the home of his new girlfriend, where prosecutors say he confessed to killing Mateus. Police arrested him at the other woman’s home a short while later.
At trial, Romo’s defense attorney argued that he did not think he was capable of murdering Mateus because he “simply loved (her) too much,” the Times reported.
“The cycle of domestic violence has tragically claimed the life of another victim who could not escape the deadly hands of her abuser,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement after the proceedings. “A mother’s last memory of her daughter should not be finding her lifeless body on the floor where she spent the last moments of her life struggling to get away from the man who had repeatedly abused her. He is a master manipulator who repeatedly lured his victim back in only to ruthlessly beat and strangle her until she took her last breath.”
Romo is scheduled to be sentenced on June 24.
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