A Chicago man has been charged with murder after he stabbed to death his ex-girlfriend on a transit station platform — and she identified him as her killer before she died.
Alejandro Arellano, 31, was ordered held without bond at a hearing on Monday afternoon. He is charged with first degree murder in the death of 26-year-old Samantha Maldonado, WBBM reports.
According to police, Arellano and Maldonado had been in a relationship for about six months and recently broke up. They met at a pub in downtown Chicago Friday night, and Maldonado left at about 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, walking to the Adams/Wabash L stop.
Arellano could be seen on surveillance video following her down the street and up the platform stairs, pulling out a knife as he climbed the steps. On the platform, Maldonado is seen looking over her shoulder several times, then hiding behind equipment on the platform. When a train arrived on the platform, she tried to get on it, but Arellano pulled her off and stabbed her at least four times, then got on a train himself and went home.
Maldonado, even injured, tried to get away and ran down the stairs to the street, where she collapsed. She was given first aid at the scene and taken to Stroger Hospital, where she was later pronounced dead. She was stabbed in the chest, abdomen, and arm.
Police tracked Arellano to his home and arrested him less than 15 hours later. He had a bloody knife still on him when he was arrested, prosecutors said at the hearing on Monday, and admitted he “poked” Maldonado with a “blade.”
Maldonado’s family said that she moved to Chicago from Ecuador about a year and a half ago and loved her new home.
“Although this offender is in custody, there is still a family at the center of this who is grieving the loss of a young woman, who had her whole life ahead of her. We hope knowing that the person responsible for her death has been brought to justice brings a small measure of closure and peace for the family,” Police First Deputy Supt. Eric Carter said.
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[Featured image: Samantha Maldonado/GoFundMe]
