US Man Stabs Ex-Girlfriend To Death, Murder Gets Recorded On Voicemail

A California man has been convicted of murdering his former girlfriend, who was trying to get out of the relationship. The horrific incident happened in 2020 at her Huntington Beach apartment. 

According to the LA Times, Laura Sardinha, 25, obtained a restraining order against Craig J. Charron, 39, and requested him to vacate her apartment. She even changed her apartment's locks, but somehow he managed to enter it and stabbed her to death.

Ms Sardinha's last exchange with Charron, an Air Force veteran, was recorded on a voicemail in which she can be heard saying, "Can you please leave? Please get away from me."

During the trial in Santa Ana, Orange County Deputy District Attorney Janine Madera said, "If you listen to it carefully, you hear a woman narrating her own murder.

In the voicemail, Charro is heard saying, "All I want is to be with you." Ms Sardinha replied, "You terrify me because you don't leave."

Later, when she saw him getting into her apartment, her best friend heard her saying, "Oh my God, he's here." Ms Sardinha called her back after her friend hung up to dial 911, and in the voicemail, she is heard screaming, "He's gonna kill me!" and "Get away from me!"

On the day of the murder, she went to the leasing office to inquire about whether she could change her door locks. When the manager saw Charron coming, they let her hide inside the office. Later, the manager walked her back to her apartment, and a maintenance worker came and changed the locks for her.

After coming back home, she was on a phone call with her mother and her best friend when she said that Charron had woken her up, demanding oral sex. She was so furious that she asked him to leave. 

Mr Charron stabbed Ms Sardinha twice in the chest, almost chopped off her nose, and struck her in the head with such force that it bent the pronged tomato knife. When the police arrived, they found Charron bleeding from wounds to his neck and chest. To support his claim he said Ms Sardinha attacked him and he stabbed her in self-defence.

Three of his former girlfriends also testified in the court; all three had obtained restraining orders against him in the past. One woman revealed that Charron choked her and hit her in the head with a wine bottle, while another added he slapped her and poured vodka on her head. The third one revealed that Charron pinned her to a wall and punched a man who was in her company.

Ms Sardinha was working as a bartender's assistant when, in 2019, she met with an accident that made it difficult for her to perform simple tasks like chopping lemons. According to testimony, Ms Sardinha won a compensation of $750,000, of which she paid him over $100,000. After this, Charron texted her, "Thank you for showing me that you are all mine."

The court documents revealed that Ms Sardinha texted Charron, two weeks before her murder, that she couldn't hear properly because he had hit her so hard that her eardrum was broken. In one of the voice recordings, she can be heard saying, "You keep hitting me," to which he replies, "Massage my calves or end this relationship."

While testifying in the court, he said he used to be a combat medic and now has a full 100 per cent disability. He said he also gets psychiatric treatment from the Veterans Affairs hospital and claimed he couldn't remember much about the fight with Ms Sardinha. 

The date set for his sentencing is July 25, with the possibility that he could be sentenced to life imprisonment.