I DIDN’T KILL MUM... BUT I DID DUMP HER BODY IN A SKIP
Court hears couple thought victim was a witch
A MAN charged with murdering his mother says he had nothing to do with her killing and he didn’t chop her into little bits.
But Anthony Cuevas admits taking the gory collection of body parts and dumping them in a skip behind a car wash, a court heard.
Cuevas’ defence lawyers maintain their client is innocent of the killing or dismembering of Maria “Mary” Cuevas-Garcia, his 58-year-old mother.
Instead, the defence argue that Anthony’s wife, Melanie Cuevas, believed Cuevas-Garcia was a “witch” and had used her phone to search for ways to kill and dispose of a witch.
The jury trial for Anthony Cuevas, 37, of Monte Vista, Colorado, heard his mother’s body was found in a suitcase in a dumpster in October 2019.
The rest of her dismembered remains were found in a trash bag beside a river in 2020.
Crushed
Anthony Cuevas was later charged with firstdegree murder, vehicular eluding, trespassing with intent to commit a crime and identity theft.
The prosecution said after Cuevas-Garcia’s body was dumped at the car wash, Anthony drove his mother’s Nissan Versa that can be seen on surveillance video to a scrapyard, where it was crushed.
Anthony’s defence lawyer, Philip Dubois, listed actions Anthony took that “he regrets”, including his drug addiction, disposal of his mother’s dismembered torso, sale of the car to the scrapyard and fleeing from police.
Dubois maintained that Anthony did not kill his mother and pointed to “bad blood” between Melanie Cuevas and Cuevas-Garcia, including that each woman believed the other was a “witch”.
The jury heard Cuevas-Garcia suffered eight stab wounds to the upper portion of the chest and four stab wounds to the back of the neck.
Dismemberment took place after death.
Anthony Cuevas told police at interview that he had seen a “witch doctor” who told him his mother had sexually abused him since the age of five.
A confession that he had killed his mother was retracted before he went to trial.