A Utah woman stabbed her boyfriend on Christmas, killing him, after authorities said she discovered him trying to sexually assault her 11-year-old daughter at a party, according to police and media reports.
Fabiola Monserrath Templos, 39, of Kearns, was charged with second-degree manslaughter on Wednesday, January 28, in connection with the death of Jose Alejandro Franco-Alvarez, 45, in West Valley City, KSL reported.
The development comes after she was initially arrested on a felony murder charge on December 25, according to a statement previously shared to X that day by the West Valley City Police Department. At the time, police identified her boyfriend as Jose Humberto Alvarado.
Information on Templos’ legal representation was not immediately available on Friday, January 30.
A woman found Franco-Alvarez lying on a sidewalk, dead, around 8 a.m. on Christmas morning, leading to investigators discovering he had been stabbed in his shoulder, police said on X.
Authorities then followed a “blood trail” to a nearby home, where they learned he and Templos had attended a Christmas Eve party, according to police.
Officers had actually been to the home hours before his body was found, police said.
They visited the residence at around 1:30 a.m. “after Alvarado was caught taking the leggings off of [Templos’] 11 year old female relative,” police had initially said.
He was not there by the time officers arrived, according to police, who said he “fled the area.”
Before he left the home, Templos and Franco-Alvarez were involved in a “confrontation” outside the residence, police said. Templos allegedly stabbed him during that time.
Templos’ adult son was the person who witnessed Franco-Alvarez touching the 11-year-old girl’s leg at the party, according to charging documents viewed by KSL.
Templos later stabbed him in a garage, the documents say, KSL reported.
“Detectives located a large chef’s knife with a red handle that appeared to have blood spatter on the blade lying in a wheelbarrow,” investigators wrote in filings reviewed by the outlet.
During the investigation, investigators reviewed surveillance footage that allegedly captured Templos asking Franco-Alvarez in Spanish “what he was doing in the room by himself with her daughter” in the moments leading up to the stabbing, according to KSL.
The knife struck his lung and cut one of his veins, an autopsy revealed, KUTV reported.
The surveillance footage also showed Franco-Alvarez “taking the 11-year-old away from a large group of people” and bringing her into the home where the Christmas Eve party was happening, according to police, ABC4 Utah reported.
Templos ultimately told police that she “blacked out” during a dispute with her boyfriend after she learned he tried to sexually assault her child, according to the outlet.
Templos is out of custody on pretrial release, with certain court-ordered conditions she must follow, according to ABC 4 Utah. A summons requires her to appear in court at a later date.
If she is found guilty of manslaughter, she could face a sentence of one to 15 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine, according to Intermountain Legal.
If you suspect child abuse, please call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or visit ChildHelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential, and the hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
