FAYETTEVILLE -- A Springdale woman pleaded guilty Monday in Washington County Circuit Court to stabbing her boyfriend to death two years ago.
Pedro Coria Campuzano, 36, was killed in August 2015 at an apartment on Butterfield Coach Road in Springdale.
Legal lingo
Plea bargain
A negotiated agreement between a criminal defendant and a prosecutor in which the defendant agrees to plead “guilty” or “no contest” to some crimes, along with possible conditions in return for reduction of the severity of the charges, dismissal of some of the charges, or some other benefit to the defendant.
Source: uslegal.com
Wanda Ivette Andaluz-Prado, 46, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence in a plea bargain with prosecutors. Andaluz-Prado was charged with first-degree murder and faced 10 to 40 years or life in prison. The trial was set to begin Monday morning.
Judge Joanna Taylor sentenced Andaluz-Prado to the maximum 30 years at the Arkansas Department of Correction on the murder charge and six years on the tampering charge. The terms will run concurrently.
Terra Stephenson, deputy prosecutor, said the deal was a good resolution to what promised to be a messy and difficult case to try.
"There was some history of domestic violence which was going to be relevant, based on the defense of self-defense," Stephenson said. "I basically had a drunk, belligerent, domestic violence victim and no mitigating evidence for him. And, it was one stab wound and she maintains she wasn't trying to kill him, just trying to scare him, and he had been hitting her earlier in the evening. So, that's what I based all of that on."
A pretrial mental examination at the Arkansas State Hospital concluded Andaluz-Prado had no mental disease or defect, was capable of appreciating the criminality of her actions and capable of confirming her conduct to the law. She told doctors administering the mental evaluation she had been a victim of domestic violence.
Police were called about a possible suicide or attempted suicide at 2:46 a.m. at 514 Butterfield Coach Road, E102, where they found Campuzano with a knife wound to his chest, according to a report. Medics were unable to resuscitate him, the report said.
Police arrested Andaluz-Prado of the same address.
Andaluz-Prado initially told police she and Campuzano argued over keys in the apartment. She said he picked up a knife and she left. When she returned she found him in a pool of blood. She said he cut himself.
Andaluz-Prado later told police she stabbed Campuzano, cleaned the knife and placed it by his body.
She told police he was Juan Gabriel Coria Chavez, according to a police report. Family members identified the man as Campuzano.
A witness told police Andaluz-Prado stabbed Campuzano.
NW News on 08/01/2017