By Layla Kalinen
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION, Vt. — A Springfield man who claimed insanity in the 2017 stabbing death of his girlfriend could soon be released from prison after serving a sentence for threatening a man with a knife weeks before her death.
By pleading insanity, Arnaldo Cruz, 59, avoided a second-degree murder charge in the death of Betty Rodriguez. The prosecutor in the case has lamented being unaware of Cruz’s additional felony assault charge, a charge that only surfaced when the victim’s mother reported the attack in 2019. At the time, he was removed from a residential treatment facility in Massachusetts and transferred to Southern State Correctional Facility.
On May 15, Cruz pled in Windsor County Criminal Court to a single count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. According to media reports, Cruz threatened to kill a 22-year-old man at a Springfield Apartment.
He now could be released from prison as early as Aug. 17, after being given credit for nearly four years of a five-to-10-year sentence. He will be on probation until 2028.
Insanity Plea
In 2017, Cruz fatally plunged a knife into Rodriguez’s neck after she told him his idea to go to the welfare department was foolish because he was intoxicated.
The murder occurred in the apartment of Rodiguez’s sister, Grace Bensely, according to an affidavit prepared by Springfield Police Detective Sgt. Patrick Call.
“Grace saw Arnaldo grab Betty by the hair and stab her in the neck with a knife approximately four inches in length. She saw the blood pouring out of Betty and ran to her, grabbing Betty from Arnaldo,” the detective states in the affidavit.
Rodriguez bled out in Bensely’s lap while she struggled to call 911. Bensely’s son, Jermey Gomez, took the phone from his mother’s shaking hands and made the emergency call.
Gomez later told police that Cruz was leaving as he entered the dining room just a minute after the stabbing.
“Betty was on the floor with Grace and there was blood everywhere,” Gomez told detectives explaining that Cruz “was over by the kitchen with his hands above and behind his head and he appeared confused and unsure of what just happened.”
It was then that Gomez told police that Cruz said “he did not care and was done with all of this [and] he wanted to kill her.”
Gomez would tell Call how his sister “cradled Betty in her lap and attempted to put pressure on the wound … as the life appeared to be pouring out of Betty.”
Gomez recounted how Cruz told her “I don’t care. I don’t care anymore. I don’t give a s… . Let the police come and get me, I don’t care. … I hope she dies.”
Arnaldo then walked out of the residence to wait for the police, according to the affidavits.
“Betty was still able to talk to her at that point as they had transitioned to the ground,” Gomez told police. “Betty said to her ‘Save me, Gracie. Please save me. I’m dying, Gracie. I think I’m dying.’ “
Those were her final words as she tried to gasp for air.
Bensley later told police she could feel her sister’s body getting colder, Detective Call wrote.
Cruz, facing up to 15 years in prison, pled insanity and was ordered by Judge Theresa Demauro to the custody of the Vermont Department of Mental Health for treatment and supervision. He was later discharged to a Massachusetts residential facility where he spent 10 months until the first assault surfaced.
Cruz has a history of assault charges and drug trafficking in Vermont with a trail leading decades back to New Jersey.
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