Murillo gets life for 'horrific' murder
Charges of sexual abuse are added to court case

By Brian Shane • Staff Writer • January 6, 2009

SNOW HILL -- A Honduran immigrant convicted of brutally stabbing a West Ocean City woman to death was sentenced to life imprisonment Monday in Worcester County Circuit Court.

"She was literally fighting for her life and you showed her no mercy," Judge Theodore Eschenburg told Roberto Antonio Murillo, 29, convicted in October of the first-degree murder of Cecelia Dea Parker, 56. "I can't imagine how horrific the final moments of her life were."

In April 2008, Parker was killed at her home in the Mystic Harbor neighborhood, where Murillo had been her across-the-street neighbor and had done landscaping for her. Murillo initially told police that he went to see her the night of April 20 to see her about an unsigned check for yard work.

Worcester County States Attorney Joel J. Todd said the unsigned check story is false because police have Parker's checkbook as evidence, and the carbon copy had been signed. Todd said during Murillo's trial that the attack was premeditated --a requirement of first-degree murder -- because Murillo at some point decided to continue stabbing her after the initial blows.

An autopsy showed that she had been stabbed or slashed more than 50 times about her body, including severe defensive wounds on her hands, and that one of her fingertips had been cut off, according to Todd.

"He literally butchered her," he said.

Investigators instead say they believe Murillo waited for family members to clear out -- she had been caring for her elderly parents for six months, and they finally had departed that day -- so he could approach her alone.

In court Monday, Murillo was stoic as Parker's family members addressed the court. He later apologized through a translator.

"The entire family will never be the same again. It never should have happened," said Parker's sister-in-law Anne Lukiewski of Ellicott City. "We never want her face to leave you and we still want you to be picturing her as you are burning in hell."

Todd on Monday also revealed a new twist in the case: That Murillo, an illegal alien living for months in the home of his legally-emigrated brother, had allegedly sexually abused his 16-year-old niece weeks before the murder. The victim's adult sister brought the issue to Todd's office, and yesterday authorities charged Murillo with assault, reckless endangerment and child abuse.

Court documents show that Murillo at one point allegedly had pushed the girl to he bedroom floor, held a knife against her throat, and, as she struggled, threatened to "kill her" if she made more noise -- but was interrupted when the parents came into the room, and Murillo hid in a closet.

Maryland law states that Murillo won't be eligible for parole for 15 years as part of his life sentence. Scott Collins, Murillo's attorney, filed an appeal immediately following the sentencing.

Murillo's trial dragged last fall when Collins disputed his client's lengthy confession, saying its Spanish-language translation didn't jibe with an audio recording. He moved to suppress the confession as evidence, and prosecutors were on the hook to find a new translator to produce a new transcript.

Collins also had moved for dismissal because a Spanish-speaking assistant state's attorney translated for investigators during an initial interview with Murillo, when he was not yet a suspect. The judge said he didn't see anything wrong with it.

bshane@dmg.gannett.com
410-213-9442, Ext. 14

http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/2009 ... /901060323