After a few days of deliberations, a jury found Paul Cortez guilty of murdering his ex-girlfriend Catherine Woods on November 27, 2005. Cortez, a personal trainer/yoga instructor/ musician/ aspiring actor, now faces 25 years to life in prison.
The AP reports that Cortez "showed no emotion" during the verdict's reading, but his mother "wept openly in the courtoom." It's unclear whether he will appeal.
Today, the NY Times had an article about testimony that the jurors asked to be read to them. Woods, an aspiring dancer who had become a stripper to make money, lived in an Upper East Side apartment with another ex-boyfriend, David Haughn. The jurors asked that testimony from detectives who interviewed Haughn be read. Cortez's lawyers tried to suggest that Haughn could have been the person who slashed Woods in her apartment (Haughn discovered the body and called 911). For more about the closing arguments, read our earlier post and here are posts on Paul Cortez.
