Inset: Jean Pierre Ojeda Salazar (Hillsborough County Jail). Background: Ojeda Salazar, center, during his sentencing for murdering his girlfriend and her daughter in Tampa, Fla. (WTSP).
A Florida man who prosecutors said fatally stabbed his girlfriend nearly 20 times before attacking her teenage daughter has been sentenced to life in prison.
Jean Pierre Ojeda Salazar, 27, received the sentence Monday after a jury found him guilty of two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Paula Cabrejo Molina and her 14-year-old daughter, Mariana Cabrejo. Jurors did not recommend the death penalty.
The killings took place shortly before 9 a.m. on Nov. 26, 2023, at The Lodge at Hidden River apartments on Riveredge Drive, according to the Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office.
At trial, jurors heard from a friend who lived in the apartment with Cabrejo Molina and her two children. The witness said she saw Ojeda Salazar stabbing Cabrejo Molina on a bed when Mariana stepped in and tried to protect her mother. Prosecutors said Ojeda Salazar then stabbed the teen before she could get out of the apartment.
During the penalty phase, prosecutor Lindsey Hodges described the horror Mariana endured in her final moments. “She had a front-row seat to her mother’s own suffering,” Hodges told jurors, according to the Tampa Bay Times. “She witnessed all of it. She heard her mother’s screams. She saw her mother’s blood, and she saw how gruesomely her mother was attacked by the man who should have been saying ‘I love you.’”
Evidence presented in court also pointed to a relationship in decline. Text messages between Ojeda Salazar and Cabrejo Molina reportedly showed that she wanted to end the relationship.
The convicted murderer grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed his girlfriend 18 times. He stabbed Mariana four times. Mariana was breathing when cops arrived, but later died at a hospital. Paramedics pronounced Cabrejo Molina dead on the scene.
“This case is heartbreaking on every level. A woman lost her life, and her teenage daughter was murdered while courageously trying to protect her. This verdict holds the defendant accountable for these horrific acts and delivers a measure of justice for a family whose lives have been changed forever,” State Attorney Suzy Lopez said in a statement.
As Law&Crime previously reported, Ojeda Salazar fled the scene in a white sedan, which he later abandoned. The U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force later tracked the suspect down at his brother’s house in Maryland.
“Mourning the loss of a loved one, after their lives were taken in such a tragic manner, is unfathomable. During this difficult time, we will continue to provide support to the families of the victims involved,” Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw said in a statement. “Salazar’s arrest proves that our detectives will stop at nothing to ensure that those who commit a crime, especially one as heinous as this one, are held accountable.”
