Roxana Ruiz, 23, will be appealing the sentence she received on Monday from Judge Monica Osorio in Mexico, according to reports.
A young Mexican woman has been sentenced to six years in prison after she killed the man that attacked and raped her in 2021.
Roxana Ruiz, 23, will be appealing the sentence she received on Monday from Judge Monica Osorio in Mexico, according to the Associated Press.
Ruiz was attacked and raped in 2021 by a man that walked her home and then stayed the night on her floor since it was late and he lived far away. Ruiz said that he later climbed into her bed, hit her, and raped her, the AP reported. Ruiz fought the man and he threatened to kill her, the outlet reported.
The Mexico State court did find that Ruiz had been raped but said she was guilty of homicide with “excessive use of legitimate defense,” according to the AP.
When Ruiz was raped she fought back by punching her attacker in the face and then used a shirt to choke him until he died, Daily Mail reported. She then put his body in a bag and dragged it to the street, where a police officer saw her and took her into custody, the news site said.
Despite telling police that she had been raped, Ruiz never received a forensic exam and instead was subject to the cop telling her she probably wanted to have sex with her attacker, according to Daily Mail.
Ruiz was charged with homicide and spent nine months in jail before being released to await trial, the AP reported.
“I regret what I did, but if I hadn’t done it I would be dead today,” Ruiz told the AP in an interview last year. “It’s evident that the state wants to shut us up, wants us to be submissive, wants us closed up inside, wants us dead.”
The court responded to public backlash by saying that they recognized she was a victim but that “a blow to the head” could’ve been enough to protect herself rather than killing the man, according to Mirror.
Along with the six-year imprisonment Ruiz was ordered to pay the man’s family 286,000 pesos (over $16,000) in damages, which will also be appealed by her lawyer, Mirror reported. Despite the sentencing, Ruiz is free pending other judicial steps.
Ruiz, also a single mother, thanked those that supported her outside the courtroom and spoke about her 4-year-old son.
“My son, I hope to see him again. I hope to stay with him, to be the one who watches him grow up,” Ruiz said, the AP reported.
