REDWOOD CITY – A jury on Tuesday convicted a 45-year-old Redwood City man of the murder of his ex-girlfriend and the attempted murder of her daughter in 2023.
Jose Enrique Uriarte-Martinez was also found guilty of residential burglary, child endangerment and violation of a court order, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.
Uriarte-Martinez could face up to 33 years in prison when he is sentenced on Dec. 13.
Uriarte-Martinez and 44-year-old Yesenia Lopez-Hernandez dated for five years and shared a 5-year-old son. At the time of the stabbings, however, they were no longer together and living separately.
Uriarte-Martinez was also on probation for a domestic violence conviction and under a court order to have no contact with Lopez-Hernandez, which they both ignored, prosecutors said.
On July 30, 2023, after Lopez-Hernandez told Uriarte-Martinez she was planning to move away with their son, he went to her apartment and used a kitchen knife to stab her in the neck, chest and shoulder, according to the district attorney’s office. He also stabbed her 17-year-old daughter in the chest.
Uriarte-Martinez then apologized to his son and left the apartment, prosecutors said.
The daughter called family members who in turn contacted authorities. San Mateo County sheriff’s deputies arrived to find the victims bleeding on the floor but still alive.
The victims were rushed to an area hospital, where Lopez-Hernandez died.
Deputies found Uriarte-Martinez covered in blood near the apartment and arrested him.
Uriarte-Martinez remains in custody at the Maguire Correctional Facility on no-bail status, according to the district attorney’s office.
