Woman found guilty of murdering partner, filing false police report

Mayumi Santos Patacsil has been found guilty of murdering her partner, Marcelino Montalban Saraza.

The 48-year-old Filippino woman was also convicted of filing a false police report.

The case dates back to July 2021, when Saraza was found in a pool of blood in the couple’s Mellieħa apartment.

The trial by jury, which started last week, saw the accused claiming that she killed her partner in self-defence during a heated argument where knives were involved.

Last Friday, Patacsil took the witness stand and testified, saying that her partner had hit her after she didn’t want to engage in sexual intercourse, leading her to retaliate. 

The court heard that Saraza died of a knife wound to the heart, as another wound was inflicted to the neck post-mortem. Shortly after stabbing the victim in the chest, she inflicted another wound on the right side of his neck, where she attempted to slit his throat, causing a longer but shallower incision with a different knife.

Shortly after allegedly killing Saraza, the accused went to the Gender-Based and Domestic Violence Unit of the Police, where she reported that some time before midnight, she had an argument with her partner and that a knife had been used in the argument.

The prosecution stated that Mayumi Santos Patacsil made a domestic violence report claiming to be the victim, but only after about an hour and a half did she mention that a weapon had been involved in the argument.

Based on that report, a police sergeant went to the apartment, where he was met with Sarazar’s lifeless body.