Police: After Hours Of Interrogation, Suspected Killer Admits Role In Mutilation Murder
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FT. LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) -- Discovery documents have been released in the grisly death of a woman allegedly murdered by her boyfriend during sex.
Suspected killer Fidel Lopez underwent a grilling from Sunrise Police detectives during an hours-long interrogation last September.
Officers questioned Lopez after the mutilated body of his girlfriend Maria Nemeth, 31, was found inside their apartment.
Lopez said the couple was drunk on tequila and had some rough sex, but then Nemeth felt ill and went to the bathroom. Lopez said he called 911 for help after finding her.
But a series of police interrogation videos just released to CBS4 News on Thursday show that investigators were not buying his story after finding an incredibly bloody scene at the apartment.
"Fidel, this was not a case of rough sex," one of the detectives said.
For hours, Lopez denied to police that he hurt Nemeth.
"You have to do the right thing and tell the truth," a detective said.
"I'm doing the right thing," Lopez shot back.
Lopez maintained that he loved Nemeth.
"She's a good girl," he said. "She's a perfect girl, man. She's my love."
Then, a short time later, Lopez admitted that he snapped after Nemeth called him by her ex-husband's name during sex.
"She changed my name," he said. "She called me the name of the other (expletive) guy. And she said it twice and she was wrong and she was confusing me with him. At that point, I get mad," he said. "I get really, really mad."
Police say Lopez admitted to becoming a "monster" and destroying the apartment, then disemboweling Nemeth.
Prosecutors also released a crime scene video taken after the murder. The video shows the apartment, an open bottle of tequila, sliced limes, a smashed sliding glass door and a hole in the wall. It also shows so an extremely bloody crime scene, especially in the closet.
Lopez's attorney asked the judge in the case to keep these court documents and police videos hidden from the public. However, CBS4 News went to court to make sure we could view them as public records, like we do in almost all high-profile criminal cases.
Later in the interrogation, detectives confronted Lopez with pictures of the crime scene. One of the detectives appeared to ask whether Lopez's actions were truly because of the wrong name being called out.
"Yeah, man. My mind blocks out," Lopez said.
Lopez told detectives he lost control.
"I wasn't thinking, man," he said. "I wasn't thinking."
And he wondered about Nemeth's family.
"Did they call her family already?" Lopez asked. The detective said he didn't think so.
A short time later Lopez learned his fate.
"You are going to be formally arrested for the death of Maria," one of the detectives told him.
Lopez is being held in the Broward County Jail without bond on charges of murder and sexual battery. Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty against him.
Prosecutors also released transcripts of numerous phone calls that Lopez made from jail.
In one of the calls, he told a family member that in the days after the murder he was being haunted by Maria Nemeth's death and couldn't sleep. He said, "Each time that I close my eyes, I have that in mind."