Inset: Jean Pierre Ojeda Salazar (Hillsborough County Jail). Background: Ojeda Salazar, center, during his sentencing for murdering his girlfriend and her daughter in Tampa, Fla. (WTSP).
A Florida man stabbed his girlfriend nearly 20 times and then turned his attention to her daughter when the teen tried to stop his brutal attack.
Jean Pierre Ojeda Salazar, 27, was sentenced to life in prison Monday after a jury convicted him of two counts of first-degree murder for the slaying of Paula Cabrejo Molina and her 14-year-old daughter, Mariana Cabrejo. The jury spared Ojeda Salazar from the death penalty.
The incident occurred shortly before 9 a.m. on Nov. 26, 2023, at The Lodge at Hidden River apartments on Riveredge Drive, the Hillsborough County State Attorney”s Office said.
A friend who lived in the apartment with the victim and her two children told jurors that she saw the suspect stabbing Cabrejo Molina on the bed when Mariana came to her defense. Ojeda Salazar stabbed Mariana before she could escape the apartment.
“She had a front-row seat to her mother’s own suffering,” prosecutor Lindsey Hodges told the jury during the penalty phase of the case, according to a courtroom report from the Tampa Bay Times. “She witnessed all of it. She heard her mother’s screams. She saw her mother’s blood, and she saw how gruesomely her mother was attacked by the man who should have been saying ‘I love you.'”
Text messages between the suspect and victim reportedly depicted a relationship falling apart. Cabrejo Molina wanted to leave her boyfriend, messages showed.
The convicted murderer grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed his girlfriend 18 times. He stabbed Mariana four times. Mariana was breathing when cops arrived, but later died at a hospital. Paramedics pronounced Cabrejo Molina dead on the scene.
“This case is heartbreaking on every level. A woman lost her life, and her teenage daughter was murdered while courageously trying to protect her. This verdict holds the defendant accountable for these horrific acts and delivers a measure of justice for a family whose lives have been changed forever,” State Attorney Suzy Lopez said in a statement.
As Law&Crime previously reported, Ojeda Salazar fled the scene in a white sedan, which he later abandoned. The U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force later tracked the suspect down at his brother’s house in Maryland.
“Mourning the loss of a loved one, after their lives were taken in such a tragic manner, is unfathomable. During this difficult time, we will continue to provide support to the families of the victims involved,” Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw said in a statement. “Salazar’s arrest proves that our detectives will stop at nothing to ensure that those who commit a crime, especially one as heinous as this one, are held accountable.”
Jerry Lambe contributed to this report.
