Iyanna Marie Colon: Michigan woman gets life for strangling BF to death after altercation over loud music
PORTAGE, MICHIGAN: A Michigan woman was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday, August 5, after being convicted for strangling her boyfriend of two months to death following an altercation over loud music.
Iyanna Marie Colon, 23 and her defense lawyer, however claimed that she killed Maan Saleh Alblowi, 25, in self-defense.
A probable cause affidavit stated that Colon and the victim were living together at his Portage apartment for around a week when an argument over loud music turned fatal on January 17 last year.
The suspect, who has a history of violence, said during the argument that she threw water in Alblowi’s face and strangled him to death in self-defense, believing the “situation was life or death.”
According to Colon, Alblowi ran at her and dragged her by her hair and choked her first to the point of blacking out.
Defendant Iyanna Colon prayed over the victim's body
Authorities said that Colon admitted to the investigators that she prayed over Alblowi’s body for an hour or more and cried as she was aware that he was dead. She then covered the victim’s body in a robe, and dumped his remains in a closet before sleeping for hours on Alblowi’s mattress.
Colon, then, apparently went out for a walk because she was “[t]ired of looking at him,” and tried to remove her fingerprints from the scene of the homicide at the Briargate Apartment complex.
When did authorities learn about the crime by Iyanna Colon?
The authorities learnt about the crime the following day when Colon confessed to her parents. Alblowi’s body was discovered by law enforcement while Colon was at their headquarters. He died of mechanical asphyxiation. The Kalamazoo County Prosecutor’s Office had to accept the fact that Circuit Judge Paul Bridenstine had excluded from evidence certain admissions Colon made to police.
The judge ruled that Colon had twice asked for an attorney while down at the station. “Yeah, I’m just, like, remaining silent,” Colon reportedly said one of the times.
Iyanna Colon was convicted in early August
Colon was convicted in early August by a jury of her peers of premeditated first-degree murder after three days despite the ruling and her self-defense claims. According to MLive, Kalamazoo County Assistant Prosecutor Amy Sheppard said during closing arguments that Colon “intentionally” killed Alblowi and that she “did it because she thought about it.”
Why was Iyanna Colon sentenced to life in prison?
The report said that Judge Bridenstine sentenced Colon to spend the rest of her life behind bars as the jury treated her as “a third habitual offender.” It has been reported that she was sentenced to serve jail time after pleading guilty in March 2021 and October 2021 in two separate assault cases, one against a police officer and the other reportedly involving an assault on another man with a metal pipe.
“The jury disregarded your defense and found you responsible for the killing of Mr. Alblowi,” the judge reportedly said, according to Law and Crime. Colon’s attorney told the outlet that there “was a substantial amount of evidence to support her self-defense claim.”
“I’m disappointed and surprised the jury found any evidence of premeditation to convict on 1st degree, let alone enough evidence beyond a reasonable doubt,” attorney Benjamin Norg said. “My client is exploring possible appellate remedies.”