(WHDH) — A 21-year-old college student who stabbed her roommate more than 30 times reportedly told police that “she was doing cocaine with the devil” when she carried out the vicious knife attack earlier this year.
Luisa Ines Tudela Harris Cutting, a former student at Radford University in Virginia, pleaded guilty on Monday to second-degree murder in the Jan. 24 death of 20-year-old Alexa Cannon, the Roanoke Times reports.
Cutting took responsibility for her actions during her sentencing hearing, according to the news outlet. She also apologized to Cannon’s family before a judge ordered her to serve 20 years behind in prison.
“My heart is filled with sorrow and grief,” Cutting told the court. “I am so, so sorry.”
Cannon was murdered in an off-campus apartment that she shared with Cutting. The two were said to be friends prior to moving in together.
In an interrogation at the Radford City Police Department following the murder, Cutting admitted to stabbing Cannon to death but reportedly offered no motive as she rambled on and repeatedly recited the Hail Mary prayer in Spanish.
In the hours prior to the murder, prosecutors said Cutting told officers that she had consumed alcohol and smoked tobacco, in addition to using cocaine, mushrooms, Adderall, Xanax, and marijuana.
Cutting was taken to jail but later sent to a mental health facility because she reportedly kept trying to shove her whole hand into her mouth.
A search warrant executed at her apartment is said to have yielded pills, brown residue, smoking devices, and an array of drug paraphernalia.
Both women were members of the university’s Latino Student Alliance.
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