Texas Murder-Castration Case

(Dallas, Texas)

Cristal Paulette Richardson told jurors at her murder trial that she doesn’t recall everything that happened when she stabbed Cedric Lamont Owens 130 times and castrated him inside a Far East Dallas motel room.[…]

Richardson, 29, testified Friday in a Dallas County courtroom that she acted in self-defense because, she said, Owens attacked and raped her. She said the two, who had known each other less than 12 hours, had spent part of the night together and she used cocaine, PCP, marijuana and alcohol. She said she blacked out so she doesn’t remember all the details of what happened the rest of the night but testified that she was not high at the time of the slayings.

But Dallas County prosecutors Josh Healy and Brandi Mitchell said while questioning Richardson that her faulty memory is just her way of only telling the jury facts that aid her version of events.

Police responding to the motel that night found Owens’ bloody and naked body inside the motel room. In addition to the stab wounds and castration, his throat had also been cut, authorities said. Richardson, who was also naked and covered in blood, was sitting outside in a stairwell.

The trial continues tomorrow.