Isabella Guzman, Who Stabbed Mother To Death, Asks For Release From Colorado Mental Hospital
(CBS4) - A Colorado woman who brutally stabbed and killed her mother 7 years ago in Aurora wants to rejoin society after her stint in a mental hospital. Isabella Guzman stabbed Yun Mi Hoy 79 times in 2013. She was 18 at the time, and was later found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Guzman told CBS4 in a virtual interview that she is on medication and her sanity has been restored.
"I was not myself when I did that, and I have since been restored to full health," she said.
Authorities said Guzman stabbed her mother in the face, neck and torso in their Aurora home on Aug. 28.
"I was abused at home by my family for many years. My parents are Jehovah's Witnesses, and I left the religion when I was 14, and the abuse at home worsened after I quit," she said.
Court documents indicated she had been at extreme odds with her mother. She argued with her and wrote "You will pay."
"The fight with my mom was terrible and I was injured in the process. I have the scars on my hands. I don't know if you can see or not," she said, holding her left hand up to the camera.
After the murder many people were shocked to learn that Guzman was accused of such a vicious act. But a doctor testified in Arapahoe County Court that she was schizophrenic and had been suffering from highly disturbing delusions for years. The doctor said Guzman didn't believe her mother was in fact her mother but instead a woman named Cecelia who she believed needed to be killed in order to save the world.
After being found not guilty by reason of insanity she was taken to the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo, where she has been ever since. Her interview with CBS4 for this report was recorded on a computer inside the facility.
"I'm not mentally ill anymore. I'm not a danger to myself or others," she said.
In 2015 Guzman reported to police that she was sexually assaulted by a hospital employee in a closet.
"He asked me if I wanted to go in there and look through to get some clothing so I did. The other patient left and he went in there and shut the door behind him," she said.
The case was investigated by the state hospital's police. The Colorado Department of Human Services denied CBS4's request for information about it, citing privacy laws.
Guzman said there were two other incidents with the same employee.
"I was afraid that if I didn't do what he wanted that he could ruin my life."
She is now seeking prosecution of the man she claims assaulted her. But the district attorney's office in Pueblo says they never got such a case all those years ago from the hospital police.
"(It's been) so hard on me emotionally and mentally. It made me feel like I wanted to give up," she said.
But what Guzman would like most of all is to be released from the Colorado Mental Health Institute.
"If I could change it or if I could take it back, I would."