"Woman held in death of boyfriend in Leominster" by Kim Ring Worcester Telegram & Gazette June 12, 2015
LEOMINSTER — A woman who failed to appear in court to testify against her boyfriend on Wednesday allegedly stabbed him to death in their apartment that night and was charged with his murder on Thursday.
Stephanie Cruz, 28, of Leominster, allegedly called 911 just after 10:30 a.m. Thursday and told police she had killed her boyfriend, Cedric Taylor, the night before, investigators said.
Police went to the Water Street apartment and found the victim dead on the floor with “massive trauma to the torso area,” which was consistent with what Cruz told police, Senior First Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey Travers said in Leominster District Court.
Investigators found a potential murder weapon, a knife, in the kitchen sink, said Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr.
Taylor, 37, had been arrested and charged with domestic assault and battery on Cruz in March. He had been held in lieu of bail at the Worcester County Jail and House of Correction since then awaiting trial.
The district attorney’s office had twice tried to bring the case to trial, but both times, most recently on Wednesday, their key witness, Cruz, failed to show up to testify. When she did not show up in court Wednesday, her boyfriend was released.
Cruz, who appeared at her arraignment wearing a blue scrubs top, spoke calmly as she asked for a court-appointed attorney and listened as Judge Mark Noonan ordered her held without bail.
Neighbors told police on Thursday that they had heard fighting in the fourth-floor apartment where Cruz lived with the victim and they did not call police Wednesday night because the fighting was not unusual.
Early declined to say whether the couple’s 2-year-old child was in the apartment when the alleged stabbing occurred. That child is now in the custody of the state Department of Children and Families.
Cruz has two other children, who are being cared for by their father, Early said.
Cruz was in the apartment when police arrived after her 911 call. Early declined to discuss why she waited all night to alert authorities.
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Also see:
Hoarror in Peabody
Murder in the Name of the Savain
