Woman Brutally Strangled, Murdered by Ex Minutes After Cops Left: Family

a California man brutally killed his ex-girlfriend but his defense tried to argue he could never do that because he loved her too much well now he's facing a sentence of life behind bars we're speaking with This Woman's sister about this very distressing story welcome to sidebar presented by law crime I'm Jesse Weber in the early morning hours of March 17th 2023 Orange County author already say then 36-year-old Aaron Steven Romo got kicked out of a bar after a fight that left him injured he had reportedly been hitting on a woman Inside the bar who rejected his advances and then she slapped him outside the bar Romo called his ex-girlfriend 24-year-old mlli Matas called multiple times begging for her to pick him up now he wasn't supposed to be doing that because she had a restraining order out against him for attacking her in De mber of 2022 beating her and throwing her over a patio fence but unfortunately she eventually agreed to come and pick him up and the two went back to his apartment which at one point they both shared mlli reportedly did not go willingly into the apartment with Romo a security guard at the complex called police after he claimed he saw Romo violently pull mlli inside as she screamed I'm not crazy I'm not going in there and time police responded to the scene but left when no one answered the door it was revealed a trial that mlli was killed less than an hour after the police left that scene her mother got nervous when she couldn't reach her so she went to Romo's apartment and found the door open mlli was in the bathtub badly beaten and strangled to death Romo was arrested at the home of his current girlfriend at the time where police say he allegedly tried to commit suicide at trial Romo's defense attorney argued that Romo was incapable of killing melli because quote he simply loved her too much not really an adequate defense there and you don't have to be attorney to know that the jury found Romo guilty of first-degree murder last week they also convicted him on one count of felony domestic battery resulting in corporal injury and one count of felony imprisonment by Menace violence fraud or deceit for that 2020 to attack he now faces the possibility of life in prison with his sentencing scheduled for June 24th in a news release Orange County district attorney Todd spritzer said quote a mother's last memory of her daughter should not be finding her lifeless body in the floor where she spent the last moments of her life struggling to get away from the man who had repeatedly abused her he is a master manipulator who repeatedly lured his victim back in only to ruthlessly beat and strangle her until she took her last breath meli's family told local news outlets that they had tried to help mlli through this abusive situation and expected law enforcement to step in but they say the system failed them now meli's Sister Sandy ceros provided us with all sorts of photos and videos of mlli where you can almost feel the life and the joy and you get a sense of who she was and the love that she brought to this world and the love that she got in return and right now we are honored to bring in um re sister Sandy onto the program on to sidebar um Sandy first of all thank you so much for coming on I'm just going to say you know I am so so so sorry for your loss and for what you and the family are going through and I have to imagine that the past you know with this trial happening it can't be easy so um just want to say I'm so sorry for everything you and the family are going through thank you so much thank you before we even get into into the whole legal case and everything how are you doing how is the family doing Walk us through this process oh it's been a long tough road um I can just say that after getting the verdict after getting through trial and the verdict I want to say we have a sense of relief I wouldn't call it peace because I I you know I think that's going to be missing from our home for forever you know um they took someone very very special to us like you know but right now we're focusing on healing hoping to get through the sentencing and just focus on our road to healing and before we even get into the whole case just can you tell us about your sister she seemed to have such Joy like in the photos that we see and I didn't unfortunately I didn't know her but you just see how happy she was I mean what was mlli like oh my gosh she was amazing she was an amazing young girl like um she was raised out here in Orange County so she had like that whole Orange County vibe to her she was just really happy you know um she was she literally walked in the room and she would Brien up the whole room no lie um she had a contagious smile and even more contagious laugh she really really enjoyed her life to the fullest you know she used to be a cheerleader so I think that comes with to the perkiness and the happiness um you know she was a nurse she had a lot of friends and you could tell by the you could tell how she was by the way she impacted so many people so many people she was so loving I can tell I can tell um you know over the course of this how much you know support the family's gotten and just how much people have spoken out about her um you know she seemed like such a lovely person and I'm so sorry and you know we we talk about this do do you remember remember if you don't mind sharing do you remember um the last time you spoke to her the last communication you had with her yes I yeah it was literally the day before literally the day before um we spoke all the time um it it was a theme between us where I've never been a morning person but she has always been a morning person which is my mom had which is the reason why my mom and um has always called us the Sun and the Moon right um so she would be up and text me and be like good morning call me when you wake up you know um we would face time all the time um the last conversation I had with her was really nice actually where we had a deep conversation was that Monday that Monday before her passing where she came over my house and we just spoke about where her mind was at at the time what her plans were um how she really felt you know and just her coming back to herself and she never gave you any indication about the defendant you know in her life or that she was still in contact with him or anything like that I mean I always knew I always knew um I mean I'm a domestic violence Survivor myself so I know how hard that is you know um but yeah she I always knew he was always contacting her as a matter of fact it was that Monday that he had showed up at the gym you know that she was working I mean she was working out at and I was just like okay this is not good like if he's already popping up in places and things like that without you even knowing that that's something seriously wrong you know hey there guys we're going to get right back to this very disturbing story in just a minute but I do 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most disturbing aspects of this story and I uh just laid it out for the audience um was the fact that it seemed police could have stepped in um and what is your feeling regarding law enforcements response here uh when your sister and the defendant were together in that last moment because it seems to me based on the timeline um something could have been done to prevent this um but I'm curious your perspective on what on the police response here um you know I'm just so disappointed I feel like the system failed my sister miserably um more than on one occasion not on just that last occasion um but incidents prior to that you know um and it just it just changed my mind on how I see the system completely and and this is exactly why my mom and I had you know we created this Foundation to be able to help people and just change it like you know and I I also came up with this law that I want to be able to pass that I'm working on right now um to to be able to see these people's backgrounds that's you know I'm calling it M's law and I've been doing everything I can to pass it we started a petition um and I feel like with that we're going to be helping out law enforcement you know it's basically you know an online registration where everybody that has had to deal with domestic violence have to register online and it has to be public um a public registration kind of like sex Defenders just with dom domestic violence beers because this man had an extensive history of it and they wouldn't respond you know fast enough or if they would show up I just feel like they blamed my sister a lot you know and I don't I don't like that you know I don't would this law be if anyone's arrested or they have to be actually convicted of a of a domestic violence crime it would have to be that they've been convicted or arrested if if it's on their record yes definitely because he was never really convicted you know but it's still showed in his record and he was able to seal it you know and things men like him need to be you know the public needs to know about them what what's the current status of that legislation of the law I'm actually working on it right now I have it on change.org we're almost up to 10,000 um signatures um so I'm just trying to connect to the right people to be able to pass this law I think it's it's really important great well hopefully we're able to you know amplify that here for you um I I want to go back to something that with the police though did they ever give you an explanation about why they left the scene that day no they have not you besid what they have to like testify in court no and what what I mean what explanation have you seen um from their testimony or from anything from the police department they might not have told you directly but what what explanation have they given for why they left basically that there was not not enough probable C to go in and do a welfare check which to me it just sounds ridiculous it it it's ridiculous to me did they ever apologize No I um you know you mentioned testimony right so this trial happens I have to imagine that can't be easy for you what was it like watching this trial oh my God it was so hard it was a tough it's it's actually the toughest thing I've ever had to go through and my life you know the last time I obviously seen my sister you know she was alive she was happy well you know and after that I had to see her in a in a casket but to be able to see how my mom found her I I think that really like just broke me you know broke my spirit just broke me you know it she didn't deserve that she didn't deserve that at all and just hearing everyone's testimonies and having to hear him go up there and testify himself you know and say the things that he was saying it it just I don't even know how I set through that whole trial to be honest with you I I don't it's a it's a it's a question we ask uh with so many trials we cover the victim's family members you know how they're able to get through it it just shows the strength of you and your family um and and I have to ask you I mean his defense attorney says that he loved your sister too much to have done this what was your reaction to that I felt offended I felt disrespected because you don't do that to somebody you love it wasn't love it was just you know his claim being narcissistic being you know off for himself that's what that was you know and the fact that he was sick in his head and just couldn't let go of my sister it just had nothing to do with love at that point were you ever nervous during the course of the trial that he would be acquitted he' be found not guilty no I was very confident that he would be he would get found guilty and now the sentencing is happening um what can you tell us about are you going to plan to make a statement um what are you hoping for the judge ultimately imposes the sentence to what are you hoping for the sentence to be um yes I will be giving an impact statement and I am hoping he gets the max which his life without parole but at this point only God knows you know if it should be life with parole um what would will you are you going to make it your effort to make sure he never gets released yes yes he did this to too many women there's just no way he can be let out again can can you talk about that because my understanding is there there was this history right and and at one point the police were encouraging other women to come forward what can you tell us about that so there was what I learned from in court because he had sealed his records so that's what that was so that's why we couldn't see you know we had tried to look him up before to see cuz there was something off about him from the beginning and we just couldn't see anything but from what we learned in court was that he had five active restraining orders you know once upon a time and his the mother of his first child testified in court um and he had been with her about like I want to say 15 years ago so he started this pattern about 15 years ago and you know what kind of like Disturbed me in court to hear is that it was the alcohol it was his aggression would only come out with alcohol but she testified there saying that he didn't drink when he met her they were young you know so that means aggression has been inside of him for even before he started drinking so he's been like that you know um I I only know a few of them testified but with each and every one of them he had the same pattern the hair pulling the choking the you know just kicking down doors breaking phones like basically causing fear you know and a lot of them were scared of him even at at trial like one of them couldn't even look at him because she was still scared to this day yeah and and you mentioned something was off did you what was your interactions with him like um from the very first day I didn't even meet him I just saw a picture of him just he just looked so off to me I don't know what I don't know what it was I mean I'm a mother you know what I mean maybe that's what it was I don't know but when I first first met him his the way he interacted with my sister how he just always wanted to keep her here you know next to her next to him um it just you could just see the controlling and the possessive possessiveness that he tried to have with my sister I was like okay no this is not okay um I tolerated him because of her but I didn't like him like right and I did express that to my sister you know and she would always just be like give him a chance get to know him you know things like that and I I did try but him and I just we just could not I'm so sorry I you know it's it's unfortunate we we hear this a lot in these kinds of cases um and it's just so tragic I I wanted to highlight you you mentioned the law that you're um attempting to pass which clearly would do a lot of benefit for a lot of people um you mentioned the foundation can you talk to everybody a little bit more about the foundation and if everybody's hearing about your sister's Story how can they help what can they do okay so we started um meli's Legacy foundation and it is built off of like survivors Advocates and other victims that I have been through um domestic violence so what we do is um we we provide resources we send them to shelters we're actually connecting with um diff other different foundations and organizations to be able to help out everyone in need especially you know obviously in domestic violence I just don't want the same thing to happen to anybody else what you know what I mean that what we're going through pretty much I I I want to change that um we do have an Instagram it's under Justice for mlli we also have you know we started our YouTube um M's Legacy Foundation as well um and that's what we're basically asking for are just the signatures that what's really going to help us in being able to help everybody else well let me tell you something you're doing incredible work you're doing great work here uh mlli was a beautiful person um I'm happy that we getting a chance to know a little bit more about her unfortunately I wish it wasn't under these circumstances but I'll tell you uh you are honoring her memory and her Legacy with the work that you're doing and you and the family are doing so hopefully we're able to promote this and people can see this and hopefully they'll be able to help um but again uh behalf of all of us I'm so sorry uh for your loss for what you're going through uh we will follow what happens at the sentencing but we are wishing you and the rest of the family the best of luck as you move forward with this thank you so much I really appreciate you guys having me you got it that's all we have for you right now here on sidebar everybody thank you so much for joining us as always please subscribe on Apple podcast Spotify YouTube wherever you get your podcast I'm Jesse Weber speak to you next time [Music]

Channel: Law&Crime Network

Views: 109,255

Keywords: law and crime, law and crime network, true crime, truecrime, true crime videos, court, trials, law&crime

Id: P9oI0reo0DY

Length: 21min 6sec (1266 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 07 2024