A Florida man was sentenced to life in prison for stabbing his girlfriend to death and killing her teenage daughter who tried to intervene. Jean Pierre Ojeda Salazar, 27, received the sentence Monday after a jury convicted him of two counts of first-degree murder.
The attacks took place in November 2023 at an apartment complex in Tampa. Ojeda Salazar stabbed Paula Cabrejo Molina 18 times before turning on her 14-year-old daughter, Mariana Cabrejo, who was stabbed four times.
Prosecutor Lindsey Hodges described how the daughter witnessed the assault on her mother. "She had a front-row seat to her mother's own suffering," Hodges told the jury.
State Attorney Suzy Lopez called the case heartbreaking and said the verdict holds the defendant accountable. Tampa police said the suspect was later arrested in Maryland.
The jury chose life imprisonment rather than the death penalty.