HOUSTON — A young woman is accused of stabbing her fiancé repeatedly and killing him while their two small children were in a Clear Lake-area apartment, according to the Houston Police Department.
Liliana Cervantes, 25, told HPD investigators she tried to stitch up the victim's wounds before calling 911.
Cervantes was arrested on Tuesday, April 4, and charged with murder.
The body of Nathan Freeman, 32, was found inside the couple's apartment on El Camino Real on the night of March 20. HPD homicide detectives found two large, bloody knives in the kitchen sink.
They questioned Cervantes who admitted they had been drinking and arguing before she blacked out with their baby daughter next to her.
Cervantes claims when she awoke later, she found Freeman standing by the front door covered in blood. When he fell to the floor, Cervantes, said she ran to get towels to clean up the blood because she didn't want her 4-year-old son to see it.
'He was trying to leave'
"You can tell he was trying to leave. He was at the door, he just didn’t make it out," the victim's sister told us.
"He was my oldest son, he was my world. Now there is a piece of me missing because he is not here," his mother, Tessa Freeman, told us.
Instead of calling 911 immediately, Cervantes said she ran to find a needle and thread.
"During her statement, she talks about the fact that she finds him with a stab wound to the chest and starts sewing before calling the police and realizes there is too much blood and she is unable to actually sew the wound together," Assistant District Attorney Anthony Osso said.
Freeman died from a stab wound to the chest, according to the Harris County medical examiner. He also had "defense wounds" to his left side, including one in his hand that was so deep it fractured a bone, prosecutors said.
A judge set Cervantes' bond at $150,000.
“There are often two sides, sometimes three sides to a story. I’d ask that my client be afforded the presumption of innocence,” defense attorney Eric Davis said.
From planning a wedding to planning a funeral
Freeman’s family says the couple had just moved from Lubbock to Houston a year ago and were planning a wedding. Cervantes already had her dress.
Instead, Freeman was laid to rest on Tuesday.
The children are with Cervantes' family but Freeman's family said they plan to fight for custody of the baby girl because he was her father.
“She took his life, your family doesn’t get the blessing to raise that baby,” Jessica Platt, Freeman’s sister, said.
They're heartbroken the baby will never know her father.
"He deserved to live a long happy joyous life with his daughter," Freeman said.
Cervantes had a black eye when she was questioned the night Freeman was killed but she denied that there was a physical altercation. Police said they have no record of calls to the home for domestic violence.
Cervantes also told investigators that Freeman cut his own arm about a year ago and didn't want to go to the hospital so she stitched it up herself. Police confirmed the victim had a scar on his wrist.