Jennifer Abigail Espinoza Orellana stabbed her boyfriend, Jose Manuel Zavala Marquez, to death, officers said. (Mug shot: Montgomery County Department of Police)
A Maryland woman is accused of lying to hospital staff and investigators before finally admitting she stabbed her boyfriend to death, and even then, she said she did it after he choked her. The initial story from defendant, Jennifer Abigail Espinoza Orellana, 21, allegedly involved her sister — who didn’t even exist.
The family of the victim, Jose Manuel Zavala Marquez, 20, said in a GoFundMe campaign that he “found himself in an abusive relationship,” and that he never tried to take advantage of people or hurt anyone else.
Espinoza Orellana is charged with murder in the second degree.
Cops in Montgomery County said they responded Sunday at approximately 5:51 a.m. to Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center in the city of Rockville.
Hospital staff told police that a woman driving a blue Honda sedan walked into the lobby and told them her boyfriend had been stabbed, according to a report from Washington, D.C., Fox affiliate WTTG. Staff took the victim out of the backseat of the vehicle, but he appeared to already be dead.
The driver, later determined by cops to be Espinoza Orellana, allegedly told staff that she thought her boyfriend was addicted to drugs and was suicidal.
She then got into the car with another woman after claiming she had to tell the victim’s family what happened, hospital staff reportedly said.
Police said they did surveillance on the suspect, following back to her home. She arrived at the house at around 8:15 a.m. and stepped out in different clothes about five minutes later.
When she arrived at the hospital at 8:30 a.m. and encountered detectives, it was in a different vehicle.
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Espinoza Orellana claimed to have taken a different car because someone rear-ended her Honda when she was leaving the hospital earlier that morning, cops reportedly said.
Espinoza Orellana allegedly told cops that she first learned of the stabbing from her sister. This purported sister told her about getting a text from Zavala Marquez in which he wrote that he had been stabbed and he needed someone to pick him up, the defendant allegedly told police.
Espinoza Orellana claimed she drove to Apple Ridge Road and Watkins Mill Road to pick him up and when she located him, he had a single stab wound. She said she drove him to the hospital.
Espinoza Orellana allegedly agreed to give authorities the clothing she previously wore, and then, on the drive back home with officers, she admitted lying about where she found Zavala Marquez. Instead, she asserted she found him closer to home and that she may have been the person to stab him.
She allegedly admitted lying about there being a rear-ender, and that her sister — who didn’t exist — never texted her.
Finally, she reportedly told cops she and Zavala Marquez got into a fight while drinking with her friend Kaitlin, according to the WTTG report. In this alleged version of events, it escalated to Zavala Marquez grabbing a knife and threatening to die by suicide if Espinoza Marquez left him, and he then cut one of his hands with the blade. She allegedly followed him outside to a field, where Zavala Marquez started choking her, and Espinoza Orellana then grabbed the knife and stabbed him in the chest, she allegedly told police.
Stephanie Moore, assistant to the medical examiner, told Law&Crime that the office ruled the death a homicide, but she declined to say more because of the ongoing investigation.
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