RICHMOND, Va (WRIC) — Four months after her father was slain in Richmond’s southside, a Guatemalan woman told 8News her dream to reunite with her father was stripped from her.
“I always dreamed of seeing him again — of sharing with him again,” said Alejandra Virula, 27, in an interview translated from Spanish.
Raul Morales was found lifeless on December 6 in the Southwood Apartments area with apparent head injuries, according to Richmond police.
“It is very difficult to understand that a woman did what she did to him, and that he couldn’t defend himself, because I know that he could have defended himself,” she said.
8News discovered on Wednesday that 24-year-old Shaliyah Branch-Dixon was charged with second degree murder after the 62-year-old was found dead.
While the medical examiner’s office has not confirmed the circumstances of Morales’ injuries, Virula said “we were informed that she had hit him on the head with a bat, and at that very moment he died,” after she heard from neighbors at the Southwood complex.
Virula added that she does not know who the suspect is. Court documents show Branch-Dixon’s brushes with the law—including an incident this past January when she allegedly ran a red light in a stolen pickup truck at Belvidere and West Main, before hitting a Richmond police patrol car.
“He was a good person, he didn’t have problems with anyone. And that’s why I don’t understand why she did what she did,” Virula said.
All defendants are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Branch-Dixon was due in court Wednesday to be arraigned on the second-degree murder charge, but online court documents indicate that has been pushed back — her next court appearance is scheduled for May 2.
