Fabiola Lara, Kearns, Utah woman stabs boyfriend dead after allegedly catching man taking off 11-year-old female relative’s leggings at West Valley City Christmas party. Incident leads to debate over vigilante justice, taking the law into one’s own hands. Victim id as Jose Humberto Alvarado.
A Utah woman is accused of fatally her stabbing boyfriend after allegedly witnessing the man sexually assault a minor relative at a West Valley City residence.
Fabiola Lara, 39 of Kearns was booked on a felony murder charge after authorities say she stabbed her boyfriend after she allegedly caught him taking off her 11-year-old relative’s leggings at a Christmas party.
Boyfriend stabbed after girlfriend confronted man over alleged molestation of 11-year-old girl
Lara reportedly attacked her boyfriend after confronting him over the incident, with the victim later found dead on a neighborhood sidewalk.
Jose Humberto Alvarado, 45, was found unresponsive around 8 a.m. Thursday, Christmas Day near 4500 West and Thayn Drive by a dog walker who called 911, West Valley City police said.
The victim had an apparent stab wound to his shoulder, and a blood trail led investigators to a home on Atlas Way, where Alvarado and Fabiola Lara had attended a party the night before. Lara was booked into Salt Lake County Metro Jail following the incident, FOX13 reported.
Police responded to the Atlas Way address around 1:30 a.m. followign reports that Alvarado had been caught trying to remove leggings from Lara’s 11-year-old female relative, according to a West Valley City Police Department statement on X.
Victim left the home after alleged stabbing before being found dead on sidewalk nearby
Officers arrived to investigate but Alvarado had already fled the scene. Detectives later determined that Lara and Alvarado argued in front of the home before the man leaving by foot, during which time police believe the girlfriend stabbed her boyfriend.
Detectives note in court documents that home surveillance captured the stabbing and the victim leaving the home.
Alvarado collapsed and died from his injuries blocks away on Thayn Drive. Blood was observed leading up to where the man collapsed.
The murder led to some commentators claiming that the girlfriend having acted appropriately, even if she had taken the law into her hands given the egregious nature of the alleged claim of child molestation.
Social media responds to vigilante justice dilemma
Wrote one social media commentator, ‘The gf either got justice for victims that would not have otherwise gotten it or protected a lot of future victims.
Stated another, ‘Sounds like Fabiola sorted the situation.’
Wrote another, ‘If true, this woman is a hero in my book.’
Others meanwhile wondered if the woman had used the moral failing of inappropriately touching the girl as a convenient excuse to punish the man over other perceived failings within the relationship.
Stated one user on the web, ‘Apparently they were in an abusive relationship where she would constantly beat on him. She was also involved in gang related activities. She had threatened him multiple times before saying that she would kill him one day.’
The case poses the dilemma of vigilante justice as a way to mete out ‘immediate’ punishment outside the court of law, with its perceived and real inefficiencies, while undermining legal authority with the perpetrator becoming the judge, jury and punisher.
Police are canvassing the area for doorbell camera footage and urging residents to review recordings from late Wednesday into Thursday morning. Anyone with tips is asked to contact detectives at 801-840-4000.
