A 25-year-old man stabbed his ex-girlfriend’s father and watched as the victim lay on the ground with “blood spewing out of his neck” after an argument on the Navajo Nation Indian Reservation in New Mexico, according to authorities.
Armondo Paul is accused of second-degree murder in the June 27 incident outside his former girlfriend’s home in Shiprock, according to a press release from the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico. The Navajo Nation Police Department responded to the home shortly after 3 a.m., where officers discovered a man with a stab wound to the neck in the driveway. First responders declared him dead.
Police spoke with the victim’s daughter, who identified her father’s killer as Paul, her ex-boyfriend, according to a probable cause arrest affidavit. She told FBI agents that Paul had come to her home, where she lived with her father, a few hours before the stabbing. She didn’t want to speak with Paul, but she didn’t want him “causing problems,” so she gave in and came outside. The woman claimed Paul had “always been abusive” and ended her relationship with him. But he refused to take no for an answer, she told cops.
She explained that after briefly speaking with Paul, she gave him a ride back to his mother’s house and told him to sleep. Later, Paul told agents that he tried to sleep but was unable to do so due to “internal feelings.”
“Paul’s feelings ranged from wanting to destroy something to wanting to kill himself,” the officers said.
He grabbed a kitchen knife and walked back to his ex-girlfriend’s house with the intent to harm himself, according to the affidavit. Paul decided to turn off the power to “elicit a response,” according to the feds. According to police, his ex-girlfriend, whom Paul described as a “b—,” and her father came outside.
The girl and her father returned inside and shut the door, causing Paul to “rage,” according to the affidavit. He allegedly kicked in the door and grabbed his ex’s arm, while her father attempted to pull Paul away. The defendant allegedly pulled out a knife and stabbed the victim in the throat. According to the FBI, the victim pulled the knife from his neck and stumbled into the driveway, collapsing.
Paul went outside and saw the victim “laying in the driveway with blood spewing out of his neck,” according to the affidavit. The victim also made “gurgling sounds.” Paul dashed back into the house, kicking down the door to his girlfriend’s bedroom. She was in the room, holding a baby. He ran back outside when he noticed the baby was “startled”. He fled when he heard the ambulance approaching, according to the affidavit.
Agents arrested Paul shortly afterward, and he is still in federal custody. He was assigned a public defender. His next court date has yet to be scheduled.
The victim has not been publicly identified.
