Jury selection today in trial of woman accused of killing boyfriend in 2010
Published: September 17, 2012
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ST. CROIX - It's been more than 2½ years since the afternoon when Carmen O'Neill was arrested in connection with the stabbing death of her live-in boyfriend following a day at the beach where an argument ensued.
Today, jurors are scheduled to be selected to hear the prosecution's case against her.
O'Neill, 47, is charged with first-degree murder and possession of a dangerous weapon during the commission of a violent crime as an act of domestic violence.
The charges stem from an incident on Jan. 17, 2010, when police said they responded to a call about a domestic dispute and found Reynaldo Marin, 31, lying dead on his apartment floor. O'Neill was arrested later.
According to police, emergency dispatchers received a call about a domestic dispute in Building 7 of Candido Guadalupe housing community at 6:38 p.m.
Police said witnesses in the area said they heard Marin and O'Neill arguing inside the apartment just before officers arrived, but by the time they got there Marin already had been stabbed. The witnesses told police that the couple had a history of fighting and could be heard on a number of occasions arguing inside the apartment.
After the stabbing, O'Neill was in the apartment, along with three small children, when police arrived, according to the police report filed by V.I. Police Detective Ester McLeod-Newton.
One of the boys told police that the argument started in the car, and when they got home, he and the two younger children stayed in the car so they would not get involved or injured in the fight, according to the report. The boy said he heard the fighting from the car and went to peek through the back of the house, where he saw his mother searching in the laundry room for something as she and Marin argued. The boy told police his mother went back into the house, then he heard silence. He said he then saw his mother with a bucket and saw a trail of bloody footprints behind her and saw blood on the wall, according to the report.
O'Neill gave police a statement and admitted that she and Marin had been fighting in the house, and she armed herself with a knife and began swinging it at him, according to McLeod-Newton's report. O'Neill told police that she remembered swinging the knife but that she could not remember the point when she actually stabbed Marin, according to the report.
She said he was laying on the ground in blood and she tried to mop up the floor and placed a towel over his wound and placed the knife on a shelf in the kitchen, according to police reports.
She told police she had only been trying to defend herself, according to court documents.
Marin had been stabbed in the right side of his chest, according to police, and when paramedics arrived, he had no vital signs.
O'Neill is out of jail on pre-trial release pending the outcome of the trial and could spend the rest of her life in prison if convicted on the first-degree murder charge.
- Contact reporter Fiona Stokes at 714-9149 or email fstokes@dailynews.vi.
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