Osmar Sabido is Guilty of Killing Christie Carrasco

Osmar Sabido

More than five years after he stabbed Christie Carrasco to death, Osmar Sabido was today sentenced to life in prison for the crime. The lengthy judgment was read into record by Justice Herbert Lord as family members of the victim packed the courtroom. Outside, friends of the Carrasco family stood silently, waiting in shirts marked Justice for Christie. Finally, at twelve-thirty, a stoic Sabido, sitting in the dock, was read the verdict and sentenced. Mike Rudon was in Orange Walk this morning and has the story.

Mike Rudon, Reporting

Outside the Courtroom today…solemn faces, no smiles. These friends and family of a young woman, a mother brutally murdered on February twenty-eighth, 2011 want justice. The accused, Osmar Sabido, was escorted to Court to hear his fate. In his defence his attorney, Oscar Selgado, claimed that he was attacked by Carrasco who tried to stab him. On the stand, Sabido had given sworn testimony that as they struggled inside the home they shared, Christie Carrasco accidentally fell on the knife she was holding. Justice Herbert Lord took almost two hours to read his judgment – guilty of the murder of Christie Carrasco.

Marie Sandra Carrasco

Marie Sandra Carrasco, Mother of Christie Carrasco

“Relief. I can go home now and I know he won’t be able to hurt anyone. He has hurt us enough and I think he got a just sentence…life. He shouldn’t be among us. He doesn’t deserve to be in our community. He got what he deserved and I am so so happy.”

The prosecution called thirteen witnesses during the trial, including four who were on the scene to see a bleeding Carrasco run away from Sabido, crying out for help. Of great weight in the case was the fact that the medical examiner testified that Carrasco had been stabbed four times – twice to the left side of the chest, once on the thumb and once on the left knee. He characterized the stab wounds to the chest as having been inflicted with heavy force, and the injury to the thumb as a defensive wound as Carrasco tried to protect herself.

Oscar Selgado, Attorney for Osmar Sabido

“I am indeed surprised by the ruling because I am still of the opinion that the defences raised, that of self-defence, provocation, an accident…having looked at the evidence I still believe that there was self-defence, and that there was accident involved. I am still convinced that the evidence does not add up to a conviction.”

On the stand, Sabido testified that he was attacked inside the home, and that Carrasco accidentally fell on the knife twice, inside the home. The Judge did not accept his story as credible, since no blood was found inside the home, just outside where witnesses say they saw the couple just before Carrasco screamed for help.

Oscar Selgado

Oscar Selgado

“That is my ground of appeal, that it was never established. It was for the Crown to establish whether or not first of all how long did the brawl take place? A fight like that could have been up and over in one minute, and then she ran outside. Within that minute there is the possibility of no blood being inside the house. Also the prosecution is saying that the forensic…the scenes of crime technician found a colorless liquid inside the house. Nobody went on to venture what that was. Was that some sort of chemical that could hide blood? Was that some sort of cleaning up of the blood? For the Judge to base his decision solely on that fact…and that is what he did…base his finding solely on the fact that there was no blood inside the house, so that the incident did not happen inside the house…is in my humble opinion strange.”

Sabido’s testimony was further lessened by testimony from three rebuttal witnesses. The accused, now convicted, claimed that he arrived home at six that evening and Christie Carrasco started arguing with him. An argument which later led to her death. But three rebuttal witnesses swore that Carrasco was with them from five to at least eight, and the Judge accepted their testimony, essentially discarding that of Sabido.

Christie Carrasco

Oscar Selgado

“He was attacked by the deceased. That is my instruction. That is what he relayed to me. And I verily believed him very much. The Judge’s own opinion came and the Judge’s own conviction came because there was no blood inside the house and that the brawl could not have occurred inside the house therefore Osmar Sabido was not truthful. He also said that because Osmar Sabido was not at home at approximately six o’clock what was said to have provoked the brawl could not have been said or done at the time. My thing is this…again that is neither here nor there because he said approximately 6:00pm. Approximately six could be seven. And the three rebuttal witnesses that were brought in ex improviso all said approximately seven, approximately eight. So there was a lot of approximation in time – iffies. And I mentioned that to the Judge…that you cannot take an iffy and counter another iffy with it.”

So Sabido’s fate has been sealed, with a conviction and a sentence of life in prison.

Oscar Selgado

“He is disappointed. He is disappointed. Because he had an honest and reasonable belief that he was under attack and the defence of self-defence was taken away and discarded by the Court. So he was in fact disappointed. I told him from the beginning that whenever there is a Judge sitting without a jury the Judge takes all the consideration, the facts and the law into account so that he must keep an open mind and that there is always the room for appeal. That this is not the end of the matter. There is always the room for appeal.”

Marie Sandra Carrasco

“If you do something you need to pay for what you have done, especially to an innocent person. My daughter didn’t deserve what she got. She was a sweet, loving person. I just wish it had not happened so I could still have my daughter here with me.”

Justice served maybe…but it can never bring back Christie Carrasco, murdered at twenty-two. Mike Rudon for News Five.