Sweet But Psycho: Isabella Guzman

WEBVTT

1
00:00:02.399 --> 00:00:22.760
Discretion is advised. This is ten
minuted murderer. Forty seven year old you

2
00:00:22.920 --> 00:00:28.039
Me Hoy was becoming more and more
frightened of her teenage daughter, eighteen year

3
00:00:28.039 --> 00:00:32.560
old Isabella Guzman. The two of
them had never had a great relationship,

4
00:00:32.920 --> 00:00:37.960
and they frequently argued ever since Isabella
was a little girl. The arguing got

5
00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:41.799
so bad that when Isabella was only
nine, she spent a portion of time

6
00:00:41.840 --> 00:00:47.119
living with her biological father in the
hopes that some distance would improve the relationship

7
00:00:47.200 --> 00:00:53.200
with her mother. According to Isabella's
stepdad, Ryan Hoy, Isabella continued to

8
00:00:53.240 --> 00:00:58.359
disrespect her mother throughout her teenage years. After she dropped out of high school,

9
00:00:58.520 --> 00:01:03.759
the relationship deteriorates, did it even
further, her behavior escalated to include

10
00:01:03.840 --> 00:01:10.200
screaming at Yumi and even spitting at
her. The assaults and threats came to

11
00:01:10.280 --> 00:01:15.560
a head on Wednesday, the twenty
eighth of August twenty thirteen, when Yumi

12
00:01:15.640 --> 00:01:21.040
received a threatening email from her daughter. The email was simple, saying you

13
00:01:21.159 --> 00:01:26.159
will pay, but Umi was so
shaken by it that she and Ryan decided

14
00:01:26.159 --> 00:01:30.959
to call the police and report that
their daughter had threatened to harm them,

15
00:01:30.319 --> 00:01:34.359
as well as calling the police about
the threat, Umi and Ryan called Isabella's

16
00:01:34.359 --> 00:01:40.439
biological father and asked him to come
and talk to his daughter. Robert Guzman

17
00:01:40.719 --> 00:01:45.079
had always had a much better relationship
with Isabella, and Umi hoped that he

18
00:01:45.159 --> 00:01:49.400
might be able to calm her down. Robert was aware that Umi and Isabella

19
00:01:49.439 --> 00:01:55.159
always had a strained relationship. Umi
worked grueling twelve hour days at her portrait

20
00:01:55.239 --> 00:01:59.799
studio in town, trying to support
the family, but Isabella just quote,

21
00:02:00.239 --> 00:02:05.000
didn't appreciate anything her mother did for
her. Soon after the phone conversation,

22
00:02:05.280 --> 00:02:08.960
Robert Guzman drove over to the house
and he called Isabella into the back yard

23
00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:13.919
to speak to her alone. Quote. I started to talk to her about

24
00:02:13.919 --> 00:02:16.919
the respect that people should have for
their parents, Robert said. And I

25
00:02:16.960 --> 00:02:21.000
was trying to let her know that
she should be obedient to her parents,

26
00:02:21.120 --> 00:02:24.240
not rebellious, and that she should
try to listen more. And everything was

27
00:02:24.280 --> 00:02:30.319
going fine in the conversation. I
thought I made progress, but obviously it

28
00:02:30.400 --> 00:02:36.039
didn't do nothing, because hours later
this thing happened. When the police arrived

29
00:02:36.080 --> 00:02:38.360
at the house, they had a
stern talk with Isabella, telling her that

30
00:02:38.400 --> 00:02:43.560
because she was a legal adult,
if she didn't behave her mother could kick

31
00:02:43.560 --> 00:02:46.639
her out of the house. They
didn't seem to think that there was a

32
00:02:46.680 --> 00:02:51.639
serious threat. Instead, they viewed
her as a rebellious teenager who needed to

33
00:02:51.680 --> 00:02:54.759
learn a lesson to you. Me
and Ryan's relief, the presence of the

34
00:02:54.800 --> 00:03:00.319
police seemed to work. Isabella calmed
down and left them all alone, spending

35
00:03:00.360 --> 00:03:05.080
the rest of the early evening alone
in her bedroom. It was something that

36
00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:08.240
she often did when she was upset, retreating to her room and listening to

37
00:03:08.319 --> 00:03:13.400
her iPod. Later that night,
Ryan was eating his dinner in the living

38
00:03:13.479 --> 00:03:17.719
room of the house when Yumi went
upstairs to have a shower. Shortly afterwards,

39
00:03:17.960 --> 00:03:23.879
Ryan was startled by a loud banging
noise and Umi calling for help.

40
00:03:23.479 --> 00:03:28.000
He ran upstairs and he tried to
enter the upstairs bathroom, but when he

41
00:03:28.039 --> 00:03:31.199
tried to push the door open,
he saw that Isabella was inside with Umi.

42
00:03:31.919 --> 00:03:36.719
She pushed her back against the door
to hold it shut and then locked

43
00:03:36.759 --> 00:03:42.479
it behind her. Ryan quickly noticed
two things. The shower was still running,

44
00:03:42.759 --> 00:03:46.800
and there was a puddle of blood
flowing from underneath the door. Ryan

45
00:03:46.919 --> 00:03:51.560
then ran to call the police,
telling the dispatcher that his wife had been

46
00:03:51.599 --> 00:03:55.159
attacked, and he tried to get
into the bathroom again. Shortly afterwards,

47
00:03:55.240 --> 00:04:01.199
Isabella opened the bathroom door and walked
straight past him. She was carrying a

48
00:04:01.240 --> 00:04:05.759
bloody knife in one hand and looking
straight ahead as if she didn't see her

49
00:04:05.759 --> 00:04:13.360
stepfather at all. Without saying a
single word, Isabella calmly walked downstairs and

50
00:04:13.479 --> 00:04:17.319
left the house, wearing only a
pair of shorts and a pink sportspra In

51
00:04:17.360 --> 00:04:23.959
the bathroom, Ryan saw Yumi lying
naked on the floor, her eyes opened

52
00:04:24.199 --> 00:04:29.040
and pointed in the direction of the
ceiling. Isabella had stabbed her mother a

53
00:04:29.120 --> 00:04:33.600
total of seventy nine times in the
face, throat, and neck. Ryan,

54
00:04:33.839 --> 00:04:38.279
who was still on the phone to
nine one one, explained what was

55
00:04:38.319 --> 00:04:44.240
happening. The operator instructed him to
clear yu Me's airway and start to perform

56
00:04:44.319 --> 00:04:47.439
CPR. He did his best to
try to revive his wife, but her

57
00:04:47.439 --> 00:04:54.600
injuries were too severe she was already
dead. On Thursday afternoon, the police

58
00:04:54.639 --> 00:04:59.279
received a call from a concerned member
of the public who believed they had seen

59
00:04:59.439 --> 00:05:03.399
a body inside a park car.
Officers traveled to that parking garage where the

60
00:05:03.439 --> 00:05:08.920
caller had been found the vehicle,
but now there was no sign of a

61
00:05:08.959 --> 00:05:13.680
body anywhere. A brief search of
the car uncovered items that were believed to

62
00:05:13.720 --> 00:05:17.839
be connected to Isabella, so a
K nine team and several undercover officers were

63
00:05:17.839 --> 00:05:24.120
called in to thoroughly search the area. During the search, an undercover officer

64
00:05:24.160 --> 00:05:30.279
saw a teenage girl matching Isabella Guzman's
description walking calmly out of the parking garage.

65
00:05:30.319 --> 00:05:33.879
He stopped and talked to her,
but before she walked out of the

66
00:05:33.920 --> 00:05:41.160
building and into the parking lot,
the three officers strategically followed Isabella, and

67
00:05:41.240 --> 00:05:45.639
before she could decide how to escape, they had completely surrounded her and drawn

68
00:05:45.720 --> 00:05:49.720
their weapons. She was quickly placed
under arrest and taken to the Aurora Police

69
00:05:49.720 --> 00:05:56.439
headquarters. That Friday, a judge
ordered that Isabella beheld in the Arapahoe County

70
00:05:56.519 --> 00:06:00.920
jail without bond leading up to her
trial. Short date was meant to have

71
00:06:00.959 --> 00:06:05.639
taken place on Thursday, but it
had be postponed after Isabella simply refused to

72
00:06:05.759 --> 00:06:11.240
leave her jail cell. Throughout the
hearing, Isabella seemed like she wasn't taking

73
00:06:11.279 --> 00:06:16.720
the situation seriously, making faces at
the camera in the courtroom and smiling when

74
00:06:16.720 --> 00:06:21.680
the judge informed her that she was
facing a first degree murder charge. Isabella

75
00:06:21.759 --> 00:06:27.600
began crying, but then she looked
straight at the courtroom camera and pointed at

76
00:06:27.639 --> 00:06:32.319
her tears as if saying, look, I'm crying. Isabella decided to plead

77
00:06:32.399 --> 00:06:39.480
not guilty by reason of insanity,
and shortly afterwards a psychiatric evaluation led to

78
00:06:39.519 --> 00:06:46.319
her being diagnosed with schizophrenia and found
unfit to stand trial. According to Isabella,

79
00:06:46.439 --> 00:06:49.680
she hadn't realized that she was stabbing
her own mother. Instead, she

80
00:06:49.720 --> 00:06:55.319
had been experiencing delusions that she was
stabbing a different woman by the name of

81
00:06:55.439 --> 00:07:00.560
Cecilia because she believed that she had
to kill Cecilia to quote save the world.

82
00:07:01.480 --> 00:07:08.279
Isabella was institutionalized at Colorado Mental Health
Institute, due to be released when

83
00:07:08.279 --> 00:07:12.399
the time came that she was found
to be no longer a threat to herself

84
00:07:12.600 --> 00:07:17.600
or others. She spent seven quiet
years receiving treatment at the Colorado Mental Health

85
00:07:17.639 --> 00:07:25.600
Institute. Then in twenty twenty two
things happened. Isabella declared that she was

86
00:07:25.639 --> 00:07:31.000
now mentally fit for release, and
she became an online celebrity. The footage

87
00:07:31.000 --> 00:07:36.040
from her hearing in twenty thirteen had
been reposted on TikTok, and bizarrely,

88
00:07:36.519 --> 00:07:42.879
she quickly gathered a fan base of
supporters. The videos were reposted to music

89
00:07:42.920 --> 00:07:49.519
that romanticized Isabella's actions, including the
Ava Max song Sweet but Psycho. Commenters

90
00:07:49.560 --> 00:07:56.839
praised Isabella's physical appearance, filmed videos
of themselves imitating the facial expressions that she

91
00:07:56.920 --> 00:08:01.800
made in court, and even created
Instagram fan pages dedicated to photos of Isabella.

92
00:08:03.800 --> 00:08:07.600
Many people even suggested that you me
must have done something to Isabella to

93
00:08:07.680 --> 00:08:13.399
result in the crime, or that
Isabella's actions had been completely out of character

94
00:08:13.480 --> 00:08:18.079
for her, a sentiment that was
partially shared by Isabella's biological father, Robert

95
00:08:18.079 --> 00:08:24.240
Guzman. Robert had previously told the
media, quote, Isabella's a good kid.

96
00:08:24.639 --> 00:08:28.240
She's good hearted. But I don't
know what could have happened, honestly

97
00:08:28.560 --> 00:08:33.399
to provoke this kind of reaction.
Isabella's aunt, Melanie Guzman, also believed

98
00:08:33.440 --> 00:08:37.600
that there was something more to the
case. She visited Isabella a month or

99
00:08:37.639 --> 00:08:43.480
so before the murders and thought that
she appeared to be a completely normal teenage

100
00:08:43.519 --> 00:08:48.600
girl. Quote. Her demeanor was
sweet, Melanie said, describing Isabella.

101
00:08:48.840 --> 00:08:52.759
She's very coquette, and I can
see her yelling, screaming, storming off

102
00:08:52.759 --> 00:08:58.039
and locking herself in a room,
but not being violent like that. During

103
00:08:58.039 --> 00:09:01.360
her time at the Colorado Mental Health
Instant, she claimed that her outbursts of

104
00:09:01.440 --> 00:09:07.279
anger were a response to the abuse
that she suffered from you me. She

105
00:09:07.360 --> 00:09:11.360
claimed that while both of her parents
were Jehovah's witnesses, she made the decision

106
00:09:11.440 --> 00:09:16.360
to leave the religion as a young
teenager, causing her mother to treat her

107
00:09:16.519 --> 00:09:20.320
very poorly. But she also said
that if she could change what happened that

108
00:09:20.440 --> 00:09:24.519
day or take it back, she
would quote. I was not myself when

109
00:09:24.559 --> 00:09:28.639
I did that, she said in
an interview with CBS four Denver, and

110
00:09:28.720 --> 00:09:33.759
I have since been restored to full
health. I'm not mentally ill anymore.

111
00:09:33.240 --> 00:09:37.720
I'm not a danger to myself or
others. In mid twenty twenty one,

112
00:09:39.039 --> 00:09:43.879
a judge approved Isabella's request to leave
the institute to go to external therapy sessions,

113
00:09:45.360 --> 00:09:58.360
but her request to be discharged from
psychiatric care was denied. That's ten

114
00:09:58.399 --> 00:10:03.159
Minute Murder Today, brief and binge
able true crime. My name's Joe.

115
00:10:03.240 --> 00:10:07.120
I'm the host, and thank you
so much for taking the time to listen

116
00:10:07.159 --> 00:10:11.000
to ten Minute Murder Today. If
you're new, make sure you hit subscribe

117
00:10:11.000 --> 00:10:13.399
wherever you're listening right now, and
that will more easily allow you to catch

118
00:10:13.480 --> 00:10:18.919
up on all the back episodes of
Ten Minute Murder. Also, if you've

119
00:10:18.919 --> 00:10:22.159
got social media, connect with me
there and see the pictures of what we

120
00:10:22.200 --> 00:10:26.200
talk about here in the podcast.
It's never gross and graphic though. Quick

121
00:10:26.279 --> 00:10:30.159
email from one of you that listens. Hello Joe, greetings from Wyoming.

122
00:10:31.320 --> 00:10:33.039
I was wondering if you could cover
this case I heard about. Then she

123
00:10:33.240 --> 00:10:35.559
goes in to talk about this case, which, by the way, is

124
00:10:35.639 --> 00:10:39.480
very interesting. Also, I wanted
to ask if there is any chance of

125
00:10:39.519 --> 00:10:45.799
you doing another podcast of longer episodes
or even interviewing people. I love the

126
00:10:45.799 --> 00:10:48.600
brief ones that you do so much, but sometimes I have a want to

127
00:10:48.639 --> 00:10:52.200
listen to longer ones and wish you
did that. Also, if you read

128
00:10:52.200 --> 00:10:56.159
this on the podcast, please use
only my initials HB. Thank you for

129
00:10:56.200 --> 00:11:01.480
doing ten Minute Murder. I will
say her name HB. Thank you for

130
00:11:01.519 --> 00:11:05.159
the email, HB. And the
answer is yes, I'd like to do

131
00:11:05.240 --> 00:11:11.200
longer episodes, even though the reason
I started this podcast was for people like

132
00:11:11.320 --> 00:11:16.759
me who have a shorter attention span
and only can take it in small doses.

133
00:11:16.879 --> 00:11:18.320
Before you know, you kind of
lose focus a little bit, but

134
00:11:18.399 --> 00:11:22.639
I also do listen to longer podcasts
myself, so I'm capable of doing that,

135
00:11:22.720 --> 00:11:28.440
and I do like longer ones.
But yeah, I've done longer episodes

136
00:11:28.440 --> 00:11:31.080
for ten Minute Murder also, so
there's some sprinkled in back there. But

137
00:11:31.120 --> 00:11:37.240
I've thought about creating a new podcast
where I do longer episodes and also coincidentally

138
00:11:37.279 --> 00:11:43.039
interviewing people as well, but there
are no immediate plans to do that because

139
00:11:43.159 --> 00:11:46.399
it just doing this one takes a
lot of time and effort, so I

140
00:11:46.440 --> 00:11:50.120
don't currently have that bandwidth to do
that, but hopefully one day, pretty

141
00:11:50.159 --> 00:11:54.639
soon that I will be able to
do that. That's my ultimate plan anyway,

142
00:11:54.720 --> 00:11:58.039
to have this, to keep this
podcast, but also expand and do

143
00:11:58.200 --> 00:12:01.159
more and more. All right,
that's going to do it. Thank you

144
00:12:01.159 --> 00:12:05.480
so much for listening to ten Minute
Murder. Have a good night or morning

145
00:12:07.399 --> 00:12:07.559
or day, whatever you're doing.