Gutierrez, 25, is on trial on charges of first-degree murder, bank robbery and burglary. Gutierrez robbed a bank with her boyfriend, Nestor ``Chino'' DeJesus, on July 6, 2001, prosecutors say. That same day, DeJesus shot and killed Tampa police Officer Lois Marrero before ending his life with a 9 mm pistol shot to his head.

Gutierrez's story began when she was 3. She and her family moved from Medellin, Colombia, to New York City. She is the oldest of three girls.

Her parents worked hard at their cleaning jobs but left the girls unsupervised after school.

At 13, Gutierrez became pregnant. She told jurors she wanted to have the baby, but her mother took her to have an abortion.

The shame of her pregnancy prompted her parents to ship Gutierrez and her two younger sisters to their grandparents in Colombia for nine months, she testified.

Gutierrez said she hated her life in South America. She threatened suicide if her parents didn't bring her and her sisters back. The threat worked.

Her life was much better when she returned. She said she did well in school and stayed out of trouble.

Then at 16, she met DeJesus, who was 17, at a subway station. He was quiet, good looking. She thought he was nice. He lived in Brooklyn. She lived in Queens.

He invited her to the movies and dinner. When she arrived at his apartment, his plans changed.

They smoked marijuana and had sex. She stayed the weekend, she testified.

Her parents came and took her home. After a lecture, they allowed her to continue dating DeJesus.

It wasn't long before she realized he had an ugly side. He ordered her to keep her eyes downcast in public. He picked fights with other young men he spotted looking at her. He showed up unexpectedly at her high school and at a mall where she was shopping.

The possessiveness scared her. She broke up with him.

He continued to call. She missed the attention and went back to him for a while, only to leave him again.

On Thanksgiving Day in 1993, DeJesus came over for dinner. After turkey, she and DeJesus were talking when he pulled a razor blade from his pocket and popped it in his mouth. He swirled it around, then spit it out and cut his throat. The cut wasn't deep, but it bled.

``You don't want to be with me?'' DeJesus asked, holding the razor to his wrists, Gutierrez testified.

She told him she would stay with him and begged that he not kill himself.

The abuse elevated, she testified. He choked her in front of a Chinese video rental store. At a subway station, he threw beer bottles at her. He slapped her because she caressed his face too hard. He screamed at her parents and told them she was a slut.

At one point, she had enough. She and DeJesus were in the kitchen of her parents' home and he told her she couldn't have male friends. She told him she was through with him and sent him away, she testified.

Moments after DeJesus left, her father, Luis Gutierrez, walked into the kitchen. He told her she had brought disrespect to his family for kissing DeJesus. He told her she needed to set an example for her younger sisters.

The accusation stung, especially since her father had had an affair, Gutierrez testified. She threw a clothes iron at him. She called DeJesus, made up and went to live with him in his windowless basement apartment.

She called the place the dungeon. It wasn't long before she was pregnant.

``I felt trapped,'' Gutierrez testified.

Her story was interrupted when Hillsborough Circuit Judge J. Rogers Padgett ended the proceedings at 4:45 p.m.

Today, Gutierrez will tell jurors about how she followed DeJesus to Florida and their life before the bank robbery.

Reporter Joshua B. Good can be reached at (813) 259-7638.