Prosecutors will be able to pursue a premeditated, first-degree murder charge against a 20-year-old man accused of killing his girlfriend during a fight over Kim Kardashian.
Carlos Torres was arrested in August 2011 after stabbing Ignacia Aranda, the 17-year-old mother of his child, 19 times, killing her.
In court documents and again in court Monday, Torres' attorneys argued the murder wasn't premeditated.
Although the state contends the 19 separate stab wounds proves Torres was thinking about his actions, Michael Rosenbluth and Adam Page told Judge Richard Fields the state has to prove Torres was thinking about killing Aranda before he began stabbing her.
Judge Fields denied their motion to preclude prosecutor Kellie Johnson from arguing premeditation this morning.
On Aug. 8, 2011, Aranda brought their daughter to visit Torres and throughout the night they argued off and on, according to court documents.
Early the next morning, Aranda found "risqué" photos of Kardashian on Torres' phone and she began to hit him.
Torres' attorneys say Torres punched Aranda in the face and when she told him she wished he were dead and someone else had fathered their child he "lost it" and began stabbing her.
On Oct. 29, Rosenbluth and Page will be back in court to try to convince Judge Fields to suppress statements Torres made to the police, saying his rights were violated.
According to the defense attorneys, Torres has an IQ of 51 (anyone with an IQ of 65 or below is considered intellectually disabled), can't do math, is borderline illiterate and can't tell the difference between right and left.
They describe him as "extremely impressionable, eager to cooperate and please others."
"He functions in complex situations by simply being agreeable with those who he believes are able to understand," the attorneys wrote in court documents.
The police never tried to determine if Torres understood his Miranda rights even though he told them he was "mentally retarded" and "employed several psychological tactics, calculated to be particularly effective against a mentally deficient individual," Rosenbluth and Page complain in court documents.
While Torres initially insisted Aranda killed herself, eventually he "simply agreed with what detectives told him was the truth," the defense attorneys wrote.
Torres' competency to stand trial has been evaluated and he has been deemed fit to stand trial.
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