Woman, Companion Convicted in Stabbing Death of Husband

A Pasadena Superior Court jury spent only 7 1/2 hours deliberating Friday before convicting a man and a woman of first-degree murder in the stabbing of the woman’s estranged husband, whom she lured to a park on the pretense of needing money for diapers.

Teresa Futrell and Wilfredo Ramos, both 28, of San Gabriel, face a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison.

A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Aug. 24.

During the trial before Judge Harry Smerling, Futrell and Ramos tried to incriminate each other. But when they were first incarcerated, they wrote love notes to one another other.

Pasadena Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert de Carteret said that when Teresa Futrell was asked on the stand who killed her husband, Eric Futrell, she said, “He did, Wilfredo Ramos.”

For his part, Ramos was a little more expansive. During testimony, he said: “Teresa did. I felt she did it to save me.”

Earlier in the trial, De Carteret played a taped confession from Futrell in which she said, “The knife went in him and it just kept going in. . . . I should have stopped. It was like something evil inside me just kept coming out.”

According to De Carteret, Futrell asked her husband last year to come to Vincent Lugo Park in San Gabriel to provide her money for diapers for their two sons, age 1 and 3.

Once at the park, the couple discussed custody and other problems concerning the children while Ramos played on nearby playground equipment, according to testimony. Ramos said he did not attack Eric Futrell, but simply ran over to the couple when he saw Futrell striking his wife.

De Carteret said physical evidence indicated, however, that the two kicked and stabbed Eric Futrell.

He was stabbed 13 times with a long-bladed knife that Teresa Futrell had concealed in a baby blanket, De Carteret said. He was also repeatedly kicked, and sand from the playground was thrown in his face and on his body.

The attack was so powerful that the knife was found sharply bent and embedded in Futrell’s body up to the hilt, according to police reports.

When captured by police a few blocks away, both defendants had traces of the husband’s blood on their bodies and clothes, testimony showed.

De Carteret said that Teresa Futrell had first called her husband, an electronics firm employee, on the morning of July 9, 1989 and said she needed money for diapers. Instead, Futrell brought her some diapers.

Later in the day, she called again saying she needed diaper money. Futrell agreed to meet his wife and Ramos at the park.

Attorneys for the two defendants did not return calls seeking comment on the verdict.