An Anaheim man accused of killing his ex-girlfriend while awaiting trial for a domestic violence attack against the same woman may have been acting in the heat of passion while intoxicated and suffering from a head injury from a brawl outside a club, his defense attorney told jurors on Thursday.
An Orange County Superior Court jury will have to decide whether Aaron Romo, 37, committed first-degree murder by beating and strangling 24-year-old Mirelle Mateus in the early morning hours of March 17, 2023, as argued by the prosecution, or whether a “drunk, jealous and concussed” Romo committed a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter, as countered by the defense.
Romo during both his courtroom testimony and his earlier police interview flatly denied having anything to do with Mateus’ slaying. But Romo’s own attorney told jurors during closing arguments in his murder trial evidence indicated a “spontaneous, impulsive act” by Romo resulted in his ex-girlfriend’s death.
Defense attorney Ricardo Nicol described Mateus’ killing as a “perfect storm,” in which Romo’s intoxication from a night out with a friend combined with a head injury from losing a fight outside a club along with “build-up emotional tension” from his tumultuous relationship with Mateus.
“He did love her,” Nicole told jurors. “And that compounds this tragedy. For all his faults, for all his bad decisions he did love her. He did not plan this. This is not what he wanted. It was a rash decision made in the heat of passion.”
Senior Deputy District Attorney Mark Birney disagreed, telling jurors that Romo is a “physically violent” and “emotionally manipulative man” with a history of pulling the hair of his girlfriends, taking their phones when they disobeyed him and trying to manipulate them by threatening suicide. Seven women, including Mateus, have accused him of abuse. Five took out restraining orders.
“Anger and jealousy turned to rage and rage turned to violence,” the prosecutor said. “She is dead because she wasn’t doing what he wanted.”
Mateus moved out of the apartment she shared with Romo in the 1900 block of Union Street after a Dec. 5, 2022 fight in which Romo was accused of battering Mateus and throwing her over a patio balcony. Romo was charged with domestic violence, was released on bond and was served with a protective order directing him not to contact Mateus.
On March 16, 2023, Romo and a friend went out to the District Lounge in Orange. Romo tried to pick up another woman, according to testimony, but when she wasn’t interested he made a comment to her about not wanting to “date strippers” and she slapped him, resulting in him being kicked out of the club.
Outside the club, Romo instigated a brawl with security and bystanders, according to the prosecutor. Cell phone video of the fight showed him knocked to the ground and possibly unconscious.
After the brawl, Romo called Mateus repeatedly until he answered her phone and begged her to come pick him up. She agreed, and drove Romo back to his apartment, where a security guard saw them fighting.
Romo grabbed Mateus’ cell phone, according to testimony, and may have seen messages on it from other men. The security guard described Mateus resisting Romo’s efforts to get her into his apartment, recalling her telling Romo, “I’m not crazy, I’m not going in there.” Romo responded by “violently” pulling Mateus into his apartment, likely by her hair, the prosecutor said.
Anaheim officers responded to the security guard’s 911 call, but no one answered their repeated knocks on Romo’s door and they left the complex.
In the apartment, the prosecutor said, Romo beat Mateus as she fought for her life and then strangled her to death.
Blunt force injuries were found on her head, face, hands and a knee. Multiple clumps of her hair were found in the apartment, along with several earrings that the prosecutor said appeared to have been knocked or ripped out.
Romo wrote a message on his bathroom mirror reading “I didn’t want this I love U I want to die Please,” the prosecutor told jurors. Then, Romo rode his motorcycle to another girlfriend’s apartment in Temecula, where he threatened to kill himself before barricading himself inside the residence and setting off a standoff with Riverside County Sheriff’s deputies.
Mateus’ mother — whose La Palma home Mateus was living at — realized she hadn’t returned home. Looking at her daughter’s call history, the mother tracked down Romo’s friend, who told her that Mateus had been at Romo’s apartment the previous night. The mother went to the Anaheim apartment, where she found her daughter’s body in the bathroom.
Romo’s friend told Anaheim officers that Romo was in the standoff with Riverside deputies. The girlfriend in Temecula had also spoken to Romo’s friend and learned that Mateus was missing. The girlfriend told deputies that when she asked Romo what had happened he acknowledged that he had killed Mateus after strangling her for about a minute.
Romo was eventually persuaded to leave the Temecula apartment and was taken to a hospital to be treated for apparently self-inflicted lacerations on a forearm.
Deliberations in the trial are expected to resume on Tuesday, after the holiday weekend.