An Anaheim man beat and strangled his ex-girlfriend during a 2023 fight in his luxury apartment while awaiting trial for a domestic violence attack against the same woman, a prosecutor told jurors on Tuesday.
Aaron Stevan Romo, 37, ignored a court order barring him from contacting Mirelle Mateus, called the 24-year-old woman after being thrown out of an Orange nightclub and getting into a brawl and then killed the woman in Anaheim before getting into a standoff with police in Temecula, Senior Deputy District Attorney Mark Birney told an Orange County Superior Court jury at the outset of Romo’s murder trial.
Along with a murder charge for the March 17, 2023 killing at the Edge Apartments in the 1900 block of Union Street, Romo is also facing domestic violence, false imprisonment and resisting an officer charges for an incident three months earlier involving Mateus at the same complex.
Romo’s attorney opted not to give his own opening statements Tuesday in a Santa Ana courtroom.
In the early morning hours of Dec. 5, 2022, Anaheim officers came to the apartment complex for reports of Mateus being “battered” and “thrown over a patio balcony” by a “possessive” Romo, the prosecutor told jurors. Officers couldn’t locate Romo that night, but a warrant was soon issued for his arrest. He pleaded not guilty to the charges and was released on bond after being served with a protective order that directed him not to contact Mateus.
On March 16, 2022, a friend of Romo’s convinced him to come out to the District Lounge in Orange in order to get his mind off of Mateus. Romo “aggressively pursued” another woman at the nightclub, the prosecutor said, but she wasn’t interested and slapped Romo when he made a comment about not wanting to “date strippers.”
Romo was kicked out of the club, and got into a brawl outside with security and bystanders, at one point appearing to be knocked unconscious, according to cell phone video taken of the fight. He apparently lost his phone in the melee.
Borrowing a phone, Romo called Mateus repeatedly until she answered and then begged her to come pick him up, the prosecutor said. Mateus agreed, driving Romo back to his apartment complex where a security guard saw them fighting.
In a 911 call, the security guard described seeing Romo “violently” pull Mateus into his apartment and hearing her screaming for help. Officers repeatedly pounded on Romo’s door, but apparently left after getting no response.
Romo left his apartment on his motorcycle, the prosecutor said, and drove to another girlfriend’s apartment in Temecula. Romo allegedly began cutting his own arms, leading the woman to call 911 to report that Romo was threatening to kill himself. Riverside County Sheriff’s Department deputies came and went from the apartment several times as they tried to convince a barricaded Romo to exit the residence.
Meanwhile, Mateus’ mother — whose La Palma home Mateus was living at — became worried when she realized her daughter was missing. Among the calls from the previous night the mother found on her daughter’s shared cell phone plan was a friend of Romo’s, who told the mother that Mateus had been at Romo’s apartment the previous night.
The mother went to the apartment, found the door unlocked and her daughter’s body inside. Through Romo’s friend, Anaheim officers learned that Romo was in a standoff in Temecula with the Riverside deputies, the prosecutor said.
The deputies persuaded Romo to leave the Temecula apartment, and took him to be treated for more than a dozen apparently self-inflicted lacerations on his forearm. The girlfriend who lived at the Temecula apartment told a deputy that she had learned from Romo’s friend that Mateus was missing and had asked Romo what was going on.
“What does Aaron Romo tell her? That he killed her,” Birney said. “She is peppering him ‘What happened, what did you do?’ He tells her he strangled her for about a minute.”
Blood and clumps of Mateus’ hair were found in several locations around Romo’s apartment, the prosecutor said. She had a broken nose, her hands were bruised and his DNA was found under her fingernails.
“This was a fight,” Birney told jurors. “She was beaten.”
Romo had used a black marker to write “I didn’t want this, I love you, I want to die, please” on a mirror, Birney added.
Romo’s attorney, by electing not to give opening statements on Tuesday, reserved the right to do so later in the trial.
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