Police: Man beat woman to death with tire iron, scratched word 'cheater' into car hood

Police said a 27-year-old Phoenix man beat a woman to death with a tire iron after she told him she was having an affair with a "better lover."

Luis Madrigal was arrested Saturday on suspicion of killing 26-year-old Monique Gemino behind the Walmart where she worked, near 35th Avenue and Bethany Home Road, according to Maricopa County court records released Monday.

Police said Madrigal scratched the word "cheater" into the hood of her car after the attack.

Madrigal was being held in a Maricopa County jail on a $750,000 cash-only bail, according to the records.

Gemino was working at Walmart on Saturday morning when she texted a co-worker that Madrigal was going to meet her in the parking lot behind the store to pick up his belongings from her car, according to the probable-cause statement provided in court documents. She sent a second text indicating Madrigal looked intoxicated.

Madrigal told investigators he had been in a relationship for Gemino for about 13 years when he began to suspect she was cheating on him, according to court records. He claimed the relationship had begun to deteriorate about six weeks before the alleged killing.

He confronted her about his suspicions in the parking lot, records state. Madrigal told police Gemino allegedly confirmed the affair and said her new boyfriend was a "better lover."

Madrigal snapped, he told investigators, and struck Gemino with a tire iron from the trunk of her car, records show. He stood over her beaten body – still clutching the blood-covered tire iron — before he asked a bystander to call for police and paramedics, according to court records.

He then scratched the word "cheater" on the hood of her Gemino's car so "police would know why the murder occurred," police said in court records.

Phoenix police found Madrigal still standing near Gemino's body in the parking lot at 8:32 a.m., records state. Police said Madrigal still had the blood-covered tire iron in his hand. Officers attempted to approach him, but he tried to back away and ignored multiple commands to drop the weapon.

An officer deployed a type of non-lethal stun gun that fires objects similar to bean bags. Officers shot Madrigal five times with the stun gun and then were able to take him into custody, Phoenix police Sgt. Tommy Thompson said.

During a police interview, Madrigal said he wanted police to shoot him.

He was booked on suspicion of one count of second-degree murder.

Follow Bree Burkitt on Twitter: @breeburkitt

WPXI