MILWAUKEE – A Milwaukee teenager is accused of strangling his girlfriend after the two watched a movie about a murder spree.
Eric Tavulares, 18, is charged with first-degree reckless homicide in the death of 18-year-old Lauren Aljubouri. He faces up to 60 years in prison if convicted.
According to a criminal complaint filed Monday, Tavulares told police he had seen Oliver Stone's "Natural Born Killers" 10 or 20 times and had been watching it Friday night.
Tavulares said he knew Aljubouri, an Arrowhead High School graduate, since second grade and the pair had been dating on and off for years.
They lived together near the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus and planned to go to college in the fall. When Aljubouri got home Friday night, they began watching the 1994 film about a murder spree of two lovers that becomes a media obsession.
Tavulares told police they stopped the movie halfway through and went to bed.
According to the complaint, Tavulares doesn't recall exactly what happened next but that something caused him to "switch mentally and he rolled over on Lauren Aljubouri and he began strangling her."
Tavulares said within three or four minutes Aljubouri was dead, and when he realized it he jumped off her and attempted to resuscitate her.
Police arrived at their apartment shortly after 3 a.m. Saturday and he answered the door.
"I did it," he told the officer, according to the complaint. "I can't believe it. I did it."
The officer followed Tavulares into the kitchen. Without being questioned, according to the complaint, he again told the officer, "I killed her."
Aljubouri was pronounced dead at the scene.
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