HOUSTON, USA (AP) — A Houston woman was sentenced to life in prison Friday for fatally stabbing her boyfriend with the 5-inch stiletto heel of her shoe, striking him at least 25 times in the face and head.

Ana Trujillo was convicted of murder Tuesday by the same jury for killing 59-year-old Alf Stefan Andersson during an argument last June at his Houston condominium. Defence attorneys argued that Trujillo, 45, was defending herself from an attack by Andersson, who was a University of Houston professor and researcher.

Trujillo could be seen silently crying yesterday when her sentence was handed down.

“I never meant to hurt him,” Trujillo said before the judge made the jury’s decision final. “It was never my intent. I loved him. I wanted to get away. I never wanted to kill him.”

Andersson’s niece, Ylva Olofsson, said the family was happy with the verdict.

“My uncle was a great man. He was kind. He didn’t deserve what happened to him. We are happy that justice is served,” she said.

Prosecutors said that jurors — who declined to speak with reporters afterward — told them that it was the physical evidence that proved to them this was not self-defence.

“She hit him 25 times in the head. That is a hard thing to overcome,” said prosecutor John Jordan.

Trujillo’s attorney, Jack Carroll, said he thought the life sentence was too harsh. Carroll said he thought the jurors were “worried about her future dangerousness … I don’t think she’s dangerous”.

During closing arguments in the trial’s punishment phase, Jordan asked jurors for the maximum sentence: life in prison. Jordan said Trujillo not only violently killed Andersson but tried to ruin his character by falsely claiming he had abused her.

“Send the message that in our community, when you beat a man to death for no reason, when you come into a courtroom and you slaughter his good name… that we in Texas are going to hold you accountable,” Jordan said.

Carroll had asked jurors to find that his client acted in the heat of sudden passion, which would have limited her sentence to between two and 20 years. Carroll asked jurors to give her a two-year sentence.

“Ms. Trujillo needs mercy right now,” he said. During Carroll’s closing argument, Trujillo began crying.

Prosecutors argued yesterday that Trujillo didn’t kill Andersson in a moment of sudden passion but that his slaying was a vicious murder in which she pinned him down and repeatedly stabbed him with her shoe while he never fought back.

During their deliberations yesterday, jurors asked to look at several pieces of evidence, including the blue suede stiletto heel — a size nine platform pump. They reached agreement on a sentence after four hours of deliberations, and also found that the crime was not done in the heat of sudden passion.