Farel Torres being arrested after fatally stabbing his girlfriend in Florida (Office of the State Attorney 18th Judicial Circuit).
A Florida man, aged 38, has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his children’s mother. The man, Farel Torres, fatally stabbed her in their bedroom following an argument over their breakup, then proceeded to drive their children to school without any apparent distress.
On Wednesday, Judge Melanie Chase of the Seminole County Circuit Court handed down the life sentence without the possibility of parole in a state prison, according to an official statement from authorities.
The conviction came after a jury took merely 14 minutes to find Torres guilty of second-degree murder in the case of 34-year-old Vanessa Santiago’s death.
The tragic incident occurred on May 29, 2024, in the couple’s residence on Winter Woods Boulevard near State Road 436, as detailed in a news release from the 18th Judicial Circuit State’s Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors revealed that on the morning of the murder, Torres appeared to have premeditated his actions by retrieving a large steak knife from the kitchen and disabling a security camera in the bedroom.
Deputies responded to the crime scene around 9 a.m. after Torres himself called 911, admitting that he had “stabbed his girlfriend” and that the knife was still lodged in her, indicating she was beyond help, as per the probable cause affidavit.
During the 911 call, Torres was reportedly “upset” and “crying,” confessing, “I stabbed her in the head,” and further explaining, “I stabbed her because I was mad.” When asked about the knife’s location, he stated, “In her head.”
Medical personnel at the scene pronounced Santiago dead shortly after arriving.
In an interview with police, Torres said he woke up at 6 a.m. that morning and greeted Santiago with a “good morning,” but claimed she was mad at him because the cameras in their bedroom were not working. However, when directly asked what happened to Santiago, police said Torres began crying uncontrollably and was unable to answer additional questions.
During the four-day trial, prosecutors said Torres had intentionally disabled the camera in the couple’s bedroom, where the fatal attack took place, but said footage from other areas of the apartment showed the couple fighting just before the attack.
“Video evidence also showed that Torres and Santiago’s two children were home to hear the fighting and stabbing — and one boy walked in on the act before Torres ushered him out of the room,” prosecutors said. “Santiago was breaking up with him and kicking him out of the apartment that she leased and paid for.”
A forensic search of Santiago’s phone also showed that after he killed her, Torres went back to the apartment and went through Santiago’s social media accounts before copying her credit card information and “transferring funds from her bank account to his.”
At trial, Torres’ defense attorneys sought a lesser charge of manslaughter by arguing that he killed Santiago in “a fit of passion,” but jurors were not swayed by the claim.
