Mother Decapitates Daughter When She Asks For Food
One of the most horrific cases he’s ever seen in Hays County: a 5-year-old girl stabbed and mutilated by her mother. CPS tells us the details are confidential. Friends of the mother stated, “They’ve had some minor issues with law enforcement in the past. We’ve always been there for her. We tried to save her so many times.” They say their friend wasn’t perfect, adding, “It’s not her. She would never do something like that to her own daughter.”
Crystal Vienna and her partner, Refugio “Junior” Hernandez, were high school sweethearts. Around the age of 19, Crystal and Junior welcomed their first child into the world, a daughter whom they named Giovanna “Gio” Hernandez. At times, the family lived together, and at other times, Junior would live with his mother and stepfather, Nancy and Ustogio Ariano, in Kyle, Texas, while Crystal and Gio would live with Crystal’s family. In late December of 2006, the couple discussed Crystal and Gio moving back in with Junior, Nancy, and Ustogio. At the time, Crystal was 24 years old and Gio was 5 years old.
Crystal and Gio moved into the Ariano family home on January 3rd, 2017. That night, Junior took Crystal to the hospital because she had thrown up. At the same time, she allegedly claimed to have been experiencing issues with her mental health, stating that she had a delusional break from reality that evening, shaved off some body hair, and drank bleach to rid herself of a witch. She also claimed that Junior’s parents were trying to poison her. However, her partner, his stepfather, and the attending physician who treated her that evening disputed these claims.
Two days later, on January 5th, Junior and Nancy left for work early in the morning. Ustogio spent the morning in his bedroom watching TV, and Crystal did some laundry, bathed Gio, and sat outside looking at her computer. Around lunchtime, Ustogio was sitting at the kitchen table eating when he saw Crystal retrieve a large knife from the kitchen and go into her bedroom. Neither of them spoke to one another, and Ustogio noted that it didn’t seem out of the ordinary for Crystal, who had a habit of going into her bedroom with a knife to cut up fruit and eat it.
Gio was in the bedroom when Crystal entered with the knife. According to Ustogio, he recalled hearing Gio say, “No, mommy. No, mommy.” But to him, it sounded like Gio’s normal protests when, for example, her electronics were taken away from her. A short time later, Crystal returned to the kitchen and walked past Ustogio. After she passed him, she turned and plunged the kitchen knife into his back. She stabbed him four more times before he could turn to face her. Then, she stabbed him twice more. Ustogio bit Crystal’s hand, which caused her to drop the knife. He then grabbed it and fled to his neighbor’s house for help, where his neighbor called 911 at 12:50 p.m.
While Ustogio and the neighbor were on the phone with a 911 operator, Crystal came outside with a BB gun. She said nothing at all. She just pointed the BB gun at Ustogio and the neighbor. When the BB gun didn’t fire, Crystal went back into the house. While one 911 operator continued to talk to Ustogio and the neighbor, another 911 operator answered a call from Crystal. Crystal told the operator, quote, “These effing people are trying to kill me,” end quote, and she gave her address. A couple of minutes passed without her answering any additional questions. She then repeated that people were trying to kill her. The operator asked who was trying to kill her, and she responded that it was her dad. The operator asked for her name. At first, she said Crystal, but then she said, “Nathaniel Walker.” The operator asked if her dad had a weapon, and Crystal responded, “No, no, he was just watching TV. My daughter wanted some cereal, and I killed her,” end quote.
The operator sought to confirm her statement, and Crystal repeated, “Yeah, I killed her and I stabbed my father-in-law.” Minutes passed, and the operator heard loud banging and asked Crystal what she was banging on. Crystal responded, “Nothing. I cut my daughter’s head off.” The operator asked her why, and she replied, “Cuz she wanted cereal.” The operator continued to hear loud noises and asked Crystal what was making these noises. For 10 minutes, Crystal did not respond. Eventually, she said, “Yes, I’m here,” but she did not answer any questions or say anything else for the remainder of the 911 call.
Police officers began arriving around 10 to 15 minutes after the first call. They took the knife from Ustogio and sent him to the hospital in an ambulance. A SWAT team was then called in. A neighbor saw the SWAT team members arrive and called Crystal’s mother in Austin, Texas. Crystal’s mother, younger sister, and nephew drove from Austin to Kyle. Over the next hour, the SWAT team called for Crystal to come outside. Crystal’s mother spoke to the officers and offered to go inside, but she was refused. Eventually, there was a loud bang at one door, and the officers entered another door to remove Crystal. She was found freshly showered with no clothes on. She was removed from the home in handcuffs with a sheet around her.
She resisted the officers and had to be carried to a police car. Once placed in the police car, she began banging her head and feet on the windows. So, she was removed and placed on the ground. Officers described her as spitting at everyone, and she was kind of smiling and laughing because it seemed to amuse her that she was giving them such a struggle. The officers placed a spit sock, a padded helmet, and a body restraint on her. Crystal was transported to the hospital by the responding officers. While in the cruiser, Crystal grunted, kicked, and continued to make a scene. At one point, she claimed that her restraints were too tight. And then, out of the blue, she asked the officer to give her drugs.
Once in the hospital examination room, Crystal screamed repeatedly. When the medical personnel asked her what her name was, she responded, “I don’t have one.” When they asked if she knew why she was there, she made a humming sound. When they asked if she had any injuries, she noted the bite on her hands and then began struggling in her restraints and screaming loudly. Then, just like in the police cruiser, Crystal’s tone abruptly changed, and she asked the officer and hospital staff once again to give her drugs.
Once at the jail, Crystal began to have an emotional breakdown and told officers, quote, “My baby, I didn’t know it was her. Just kill me. I didn’t know. I swear. I thought it was a doll. I thought it was an effing clone. I’m so sorry, baby. I swear to God. Was it really? I thought it was a—No, no, no, no. Just kill me. I didn’t realize. I swear to God. I thought it was a doll. I thought it was an effing clone. My baby, just kill me, please,” end quote.
When read her Miranda rights, Crystal stated, “I’m trying to focus. There are so many voices in my head.” The officer had to read Crystal her rights five times over the course of 30 minutes before Crystal would finally sign the paperwork. But she didn’t sign her name; she wrote “no name.” According to Crystal, she thought the paper with the written Miranda warning was a contract to enter into work on the streets, which is why she hesitated to sign it. The officer asked Crystal where Gio’s body parts were. Surprised, Crystal asked him what body parts. The officer further clarified that he was referring to Gio’s head. To which Crystal replied, “It was there.”
Eventually, Crystal started screaming “Gio” repeatedly and then cried, “I need my baby, please.” When asked to explain what happened in the house, Crystal began to retch as if she was about to throw up, and the officer passed her a trash can. Instead, Crystal began digging through it. The officer asked her again what happened in the bedroom, and Crystal responded, “I thought she was a clone.” Eventually, Crystal began asking for Gio and began pacing feverishly around the room. Out of nowhere, she pulled her pants down, hunched over, and defecated into her hands. Officers entered the room and brought Crystal to the floor to restrain her once more. When interviewed again, Crystal began to rant and rave that she thought Gio was a clone.
Crystal was diagnosed with psychosis 5 days later and prescribed medications. However, records indicate that she refused all medications while she was in jail. Crystal did not testify in her own defense. Body cam interrogation videos were the only direct evidence the jury received of Crystal discussing the events. Crystal’s insanity defense relied on her statements in these videos, the testimony of her sister and mother about her history of paranoia and delusions, and the expert testimony of a retained psychiatric expert.
The testimony of the medical examiner and other evidence revealed that Gio had been stabbed and her body had been severely mutilated. Many of her injuries were post-mortem and were as follows: Various appendages were cut off. Her skin was sliced open from the top of her back down the length of her back. Her head was removed, and various internal organs were removed and piled onto her body. Toxicology tests performed a couple of hours after Crystal’s arrest revealed a 0.08 blood alcohol level, and her blood was presumptively positive for marijuana, which means they did not confirm that it was in her system, but the test results were consistent with the presence of cannabinoids.
During Junior’s testimony, he noted that he had taken Crystal to the hospital 2 days before Gio’s death because she had thrown up. Junior agreed he had seen cleaning supplies like bleach on the floor in the bathroom, but he denied thinking that she had swallowed bleach and denied ever telling anyone that she had. He also denied talking to Crystal’s mom about the hospital visit or telling her that Crystal thought his parents were trying to poison her. In response to the question about Crystal thinking that someone was trying to poison her, he testified, “Man, ain’t nobody trying to poison her. She didn’t tell me nothing like that,” end quote.
Junior testified about his interactions with Crystal on the morning of Gio’s death. His father, Ustogio, also testified about his interactions with Crystal that morning up to the point where she stabbed him. Junior said Crystal appeared normal to him. Ustogio testified that she behaved normally until she attacked him with the knife.
Witnesses called by the defense were Crystal’s sister Samantha, her mother Minia, and expert psychiatrist Dr. West, who specializes in filicide. She explained to the jury that there are certain driving forces that lead parents to kill their kids. One specific psychotic delusion was highlighted that Dr. West testified that Crystal had, and that was Capgras syndrome. This syndrome refers to the delusional belief that loved ones have been replaced with impostors. According to Dr. West, based in part on her interview of Crystal before the trial, Crystal believed that Gio had been replaced by a clone and that she had to return the clone to get Gio back. (Now, for all those that are wondering, all official court records state the expert witness as Dr. West. They do not give a first name, and we could not find that out in our research.)
Further, Crystal believed there was a key inside Gio’s body that she had to find and return to be able to get the real Gio back. In Dr. West’s expert opinion, Crystal did not understand that she was stabbing and cutting into Gio, a living person. Rather, she thought she was doing this to an inanimate clone in search of a key and that it was necessary to do so to get her real daughter back.
Dr. West testified that this was not an isolated incident of psychosis. After reviewing Crystal’s medical file and speaking with Crystal’s mother and sister, Dr. West was of the opinion that Crystal had a history of untreated mental illness. She testified about a time in June 2015 when the police encountered Crystal walking along the side of a highway, supposedly fleeing from a man named Santana. Dr. West reviewed the medical records from the ER visit and determined that Crystal was diagnosed with a psychotic disorder with paranoia and delusional beliefs.
Crystal’s mother, Minia, testified that Crystal had talked to her about Santana in 2016 and told her that he was capable of turning into a bird, flying to find her, and hurting Gio or Junior. Crystal’s sister, Samantha, shared stories of Crystal’s past delusions. For example, Crystal would sometimes hide in closets or disappear for days, or would tell family members that the devil was searching for her. Other incidents include Crystal’s claim that a picture was being used to hex or curse her and that, at various times, there were snipers in the trees outside of their home. Once, Crystal screamed at family members to get down and claimed to have seen a red dot on one person’s forehead from a sniper’s gun.
Another time, Crystal disappeared while inside a store, and Samantha found her hiding in a bathroom, scared. Samantha told Dr. West that Crystal thought CIA agents were after her. Crystal also told Dr. West that she once stood over Junior with a knife, thinking that she needed to kill him because he was an impostor. Gio stirred, and her activity brought Crystal back to reality. Based on Crystal’s description, this event occurred the evening before Gio’s death, about 12 hours before she stabbed and killed Gio. Unfortunately, Crystal never fully shared these past thoughts with medical personnel before Gio’s death because she was afraid of being sent to a psychiatric hospital.
Dr. West recounted Crystal’s version of events on January 5th. Crystal woke up agitated. She went outside to watch videos on her computer to calm down, but it did not help because it appeared that the videos were reacting to her eye movements. She smoked a cigarette, but then the cigarette looked like it changed from tobacco to tea leaves. Gio woke up and asked for cereal. Crystal had her take a shower. The next thing she remembered is that she’s strangling her, and she has a knife, and she’s stabbing her, and she’s looking for a ring inside her. According to Dr. West, Crystal did these things to Gio and her body because Crystal was very ill, psychotic, and delusional at this time, and she did not know the wrongfulness of what she was doing. She interpreted this simply as cutting up something that wasn’t in existence. It was a doll or a clone. It was not her daughter. It wasn’t human. Therefore, Dr. West claimed it wasn’t a crime. She also testified that Crystal thought that Ustogio was a clone who had been returned to get Gio back and that Crystal had called 911 because her attempts to get Gio back were not working.
Crystal’s sister Samantha remembered that Crystal would always cover the camera of her phone with duct tape to prevent people from watching her. She remembered that in 2013, Crystal became paranoid that the devil was coming after Gio because Gio had a pure soul. That same year, Crystal disappeared for 3 days. When she returned, she ran into the house and said God had touched her and shown her everything, and now the devil was after her. Crystal went to the shower and sobbed. By the time she got out of the shower, she appeared fine again. Yet another time in 2015, Samantha, Crystal, and their kids were in a store. When Crystal ran off, Samantha found her hiding in the store restroom. Crystal said that the CIA was in the store and had found her. Samantha had to tell her that the CIA left before Crystal would leave the restroom. Many times, Samantha found Crystal hiding in the closet of their home, and Crystal would explain that she was hiding from either the CIA or the devil.
Samantha and Crystal’s mother, Minia, also testified. She said that she, Crystal, Samantha, and their kids were all living together with another relative days before Gio’s death. Minia had planned to leave for Nicaragua on January 7th. In advance of that, Crystal and Gio were moving in with Junior and Junior’s parents. On January 5th, she received a call from another relative who lived near Junior’s parents, saying that she needed to come there. She saw police removing Crystal from the house.
Minia further testified about Crystal’s behavior in the months before Gio’s death. About 2 months before, Crystal became much quieter and stayed in her room a great deal of the time, staring at the ceiling. Minia also testified that when Crystal was around the age of four or five, a male cousin had been, quote, “doing stuff to her,” end quote, which caused a strain in family relationships. Minia testified that beginning around the age of nine, Crystal would report seeing a shadow boy in their home. After they moved, she reported seeing him in the new house, too. The boy was referred to as a shadow or ghost. Later, around the age of 21, Crystal would talk about people watching her through their air vents.
The state’s closing argument emphasized their theory of the case, which was that Crystal’s past episodes, as described by Samantha and Minia, were drug-related. She had a documented history of drug abuse, and the state suggested that Crystal could have been ingesting intoxicating substances during the morning of January 5th when Ustogio was in his bedroom. The state emphasized that Crystal never spoke of clones or people being dolls on the 911 call or at the hospital. It was only after her blood was drawn and she was tested for marijuana that Crystal started talking about these clones and dolls.
The state further emphasized that Samantha and Minia always thought that Crystal’s behavior was drug-related, that they had a chance to tell police immediately after Gio’s death about delusions, paranoia, or snipers in trees, and so on, but they didn’t mention it. The state reminded the jury that it was not until later that Minia and Samantha took the position that suddenly she’s crazy. The state argued that these were not credible witnesses and that they were only there to help Crystal, which the state argued showed that Crystal was trying to dispose of evidence of her crime. The state posed this question for the jury: Quote, “And if you know enough to know that you need to dispose of evidence, you certainly know enough to know you’ve done something illegal,” end quote. Finally, the state argued that Dr. West was a hired gun who came into court with the goal of helping Crystal establish insanity and, in doing so, ignored any evidence that indicated guilt. Let us know if you feel the same in the comments down below.
The jury found Crystal guilty on all charges, and the trial court sentenced her to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the capital homicide offense and 20 years confinement for the aggravated assault offense. Crystal is currently being held at the TDCJ Christina Melton Crain unit in Gatesville, Texas. I’ve heard many people mention that when you get capital homicide in Texas, quite often you get the death penalty with it. Why Crystal did not receive this is uncertain.
Recently, Crystal has taken to the internet to find pen pals via WriteAPrisoner.com. Her profile states the following: quote, “Hi, I’m a good, fun, loving girl that enjoys engaging in conversation. I’m fun, free-spirited, and open-minded. I love to have a good time. Mental health is something I believe in and did not take seriously. Unfortunately, this is a lesson learned through hard times. I’m hoping I can meet new people who are open-minded and not judgmental that are willing to spark a friendship with me. I’m generally a good person, and I’m only human like everyone else. I love music. I love dancing. And I really love poetry. I’m here on this site hoping to find friends and legal help. If you write, please include your address so I can write back,” end quote. I hope her Write A Prisoner profile includes her smiling picture that she had during her mug shot soon after she was arrested.
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