An illegal immigrant from Cuba has been convicted of first-degree murder for beheading his girlfriend with a machete in Minnesota after striking her with a dumbbell inside a car.
Alexis Saborit, 44, was found guilty Thursday of attacking 56-year-old America Mafalda Thayer with the 8-pound dumbbell in the city of Shakopee near Minneapolis on July 28, 2021.
Several people witnessed the gruesome attack, which ended with him decapitating her with a machete.
One of the bystanders shot a video that captured the depraved killer pulling the woman’s body out of the car and then picking up her head by the hair.
He was on the way with his girlfriend to court at the time to appear on felony charges of allegedly setting fire to their apartment during a confrontation with cops.
Saborit reportedly went ballistic after Thayer told him she wanted to end their tumultuous, 12-year relationship.
Scott County District Judge Caroline Lennon wrote in her verdict Thursday that “the court finds beyond a reasonable doubt that [the] defendant acted with premeditation,” the Star Tribune reported.
She wrote that Saborit’s “decision to put down the dumbbell and use the machete is evidence of a deliberate mental thought process.”
The judge added: “After the murder, the defendant’s actions in fleeing the scene, disposing of the murder weapon and other evidence in separate locations, and changing his clothing show the defendant’s consciousness of guilt.”
County Attorney Ron Hocevar told the news outlet that he was “pleased with the judge’s order,” which carries a presumed sentence of life behind bars without the possibility of parole.
Hocevar noted, however, that even though Saborit was found to be mentally competent to stand trial, the defense can still “plead mental illness” during a June 1 hearing.
“They have the right to proceed with the mental illness phase of the case,” he told the Star Tribune.
In Minnesota, first-degree murder convictions include the right to bypass the state Court of Appeals and take challenges to the state Supreme Court.
“My mom never deserved to have this happen in the first place,” Thayer’s son, Charles Thayer, 42, told the paper after the verdict. “This monster deserves to be put away for life.”
Saborit told investigators through a Spanish interpreter after the grisly crime that “the only thing she kept saying to me is that she wanted to get rid of me. I was really mad at that moment.”
He claimed he killed his girlfriend in self-defense after she tried to kill him by poisoning and other means.
Defense attorney Michelle McLean argued against a first-degree murder conviction.
“Given how the action played out, this was a crime of opportunity,” she wrote in March, according to the Star Tribune. “He didn’t plan or prepare to kill Thayer in advance. It simply happened. No appreciable amount of time passed before the formation of intent and carrying out of the act.”
Saborit carried out his brutal attack before a court hearing on charges of setting fire to the couple’s apartment during a confrontation with police.
In 2017, he was convicted of domestic assault for attacking Thayer and pinning her to the ground because he thought she had talked to another man at a bar.
Despite the assault, Thayer had asked in a handwritten note to have a pretrial no-contact order removed so she could see her abusive boyfriend.
Five years earlier, ICE had tried to remove Saborit from the US but his native Cuba would not approve the travel documents.
