Topics: California, Crime, US News
Warning: This article contains discussion of domestic violence which some readers may find distressing.
A 39-year-old man has been found guilty of the killing of a California woman after a chilling 37-second voicemail caught the final moments of her life.
Craig J. Charron was convicted of first-degree murder by a jury in Santa Ana on Tuesday (April 29), following the 2020 death of his ex-girlfriend, 25-year-old Laura Sardinha.
On September 2, 2020, Sardinha was on the phone to her mom and her best friend when the call was interrupted by Charron, who'd appeared inside her apartment after she asked her leasing office whether she could have her locks changed.
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That morning, she had been woken up by Charron and recorded herself begging him to leave her alone, saying: "Please get away from me."
“All I want is to be with you,” Charron said, to which Sardinha responded: “You terrify me, because you don’t leave.”
After Sardinha got the locks changed, she began to ignore Charron's calls. Then, when she was on the phone to her mom and her friend at around 1:15pm, they heard her say: "Oh my God, he's here."
While Sardinha's friend called 911, the 25-year-old left the voicemail which a jury later heard in court.
According to The Lost Angeles Times, Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Janine Madera told the court: "If you listen to it carefully, you hear a woman narrating her own murder."
In the call, Sardinha could be heard screaming, “He’s gonna kill me!” and “Get away from me!”
By the time police arrived at the scene, Sardinha was found dead with two stab wounds in her chest, a cut to her nose which reportedly nearly took it off, and a stab in the head that was delivered with so much force it bent the knife.
It's unclear how Charron got inside her apartment, but he claimed he simply walked through the unlocked door.
Police found that Charron had also suffered wounds to his chest and neck, though prosecutors have suggested he inflicted them himself so he could claim that Sardinha, who was nine inches smaller and more than 100 pounds lighter than him, had attacked him.
Speaking of Charron's wounds, Madera said: “It doesn’t matter if he self-inflicted wounds or if she defended herself. He was the aggressor 100 percent of the time.”
In court, Charron said the confrontation with Sardinha was 'hazy', but claimed she had come at him with a knife and that he responded in self-defense.
“I didn’t quite comprehend what was happening in the moment,” he said. “It’s taking me a second to understand I’m being cut up.”
Elsewhere in the trial, three of Charron’s ex-girlfriends testified that they had taken out restraining orders against him, with all three reporting experiences of violent behavior.
Madera pointed out that Charron could not be heard on Sardinha’s voicemail, saying: “You don’t hear the defendant on it, and his silence is absolutely deafening. He’s enjoying taking his time killing her.”
The jury reached its verdict after less than a day of deliberations, with Charron facing the possibility of life in prison when he's sentenced on July 25.
If you are experiencing domestic violence, please know that you are not alone. You can talk in confidence 24 hours a day to the national domestic violence helpline on 1.800.799.SAFE (7233) 24/7. You can find a list of local resources here.
