SAN ANTONIO – A jury sentenced a 37-year-old woman Thursday to two years in prison for fatally stabbing her nephew with whom she had a three-year affair.
Jurors decided the 2016 stabbing was an act of sudden passion; thus, the lenient punishment for Andira Abdelaziz. She originally faced a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Emotions ran high in the courtroom from the moment Abdelaziz was found guilty of murder to the testimony in the punishment phase.
Omar Abdelaziz, the defendant's son, pleaded for mercy from the jury.
"I love her. She doesn't deserve this," he said.
Defense lawyers also asked the jury to have compassion for their client due to the physical and emotional abuse Abdelaziz suffered at the hands of her 25-year-old nephew, Mohammed Abdelaziz.
"She was trying to survive. She had never done anything like this before in all of the numerous beatings that she took," defense attorney Lisa Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez didn't mince words when she spoke of how prosecutors presented their case, saying it was offensive and overbearing.
"They're going to come up here and bully you and make you feel bad and try to make you assess the sentence that they want," she said.
Prosecutors didn't ask for a specific amount of prison time; they just wanted the jury to send a message.
"Somewhere between this request for two (years), the minimum, the absolute bare minimum, and somewhere out there, there's justice. And there's your message," said prosecutor Clayton Haden.