Woman pleads guilty in girlfriend’s stabbing
She faces up to 8 years in prison in the homicide, judge says
An Albuquerque woman pleaded guilty Wednesday to voluntary manslaughter in the 2021 stabbing death of her girlfriend at a motel on Central near Tramway.
Mary Jane LunaRuybal, 33, entered the plea in the death of 31-year-old Olivia Herrera, who was found dead in a room at the Desert Sands Inn and Suites on April 11, 2021.
Second Judicial District Judge Courtney Weaks told Luna-Ruybal that she faces up to eight years in prison at sentencing. Her sentencing hearing has not been scheduled.
Luna-Ruybal initially was charged with first-degree murder and tampering with evidence, but pleaded Wednesday to a lesserincluded charge of voluntary manslaughter.
Luna-Ruybal told police the day of the stabbing that she and Herrera had been staying together at the motel for about a week, according to a Metro Court complaint. The couple drank while they had friends over who smoked methamphetamine, she told police.
Luna-Ruybal initially denied stabbing Herrera and later said she stabbed the woman accidentally, a detective wrote in the criminal complaint.
After the friends left, Luna-Ruybal became angry when she saw Herrera using a dating app and the two began arguing, according to the complaint. After the argument became physical, Herrera threatened to stab Luna-Ruybal with a large “survival knife,” the complaint said.
Herrera went into the bathroom, leaving the knife outside, the complaint said. When Herrera reentered, Luna-Ruybal grabbed the knife and stabbed her, it said.
Police found Herrera lying face down on the floor with a single stab wound in the stomach. She died at the scene. Luna-Ruybal told police the stabbing was an accident, the complaint said.
Luna-Ruybal “stated she went to stab the door when Olivia (Herrera) stepped in front of her and she ‘accidentally’ stabbed Olivia,” a detective wrote in the complaint.