Baroni Formally Charged With Aggravated Femicide

Prosecutors said Baroni’s partner suffered at least 37 injuries that led to her death at the hands of the former UFC fighter on Jan. 1, 2023.

The alleged horrifying and depressing Phil Baroni murder story continues to develop.

Reports surfaced on Jan. 2, 2023, via regional news outlets that Baroni had been arrested after calling police to his San Pacho, Mexico, hotel room where they discovered the dead body of his unnamed girlfriend. Baroni claimed she had hit her head when he threw her into a shower during an argument.

Now, prosecutor evidence shows his victim died from multiple injuries, contradicting his story.

The Office of the Public Prosecutors presented evidence to a judge on earlier this week (Mon., Jan. 9, 2023) that Baroni had caused at least 37 injuries that resulted in her death. Baroni was represented at the hearing by a public defender.

“Regarding the facts, it is specified that on Sunday, January 1 of this year, around 10:00 a.m., the victim was at a home in the town of San Francisco, municipality of Bahía de Banderas, in the company of the accused, who for no reason began to verbally assault her and then hit her in different parts of her body, causing 37 injuries that later caused her death due to mixed shock secondary to diffuse third-degree contusions of the skull, deep contusion of the thorax/abdomen and polycontusions,” the statement (translated from a Spanish ESPN Desportes article) read.

Contusions are the medical term for bruising. Third-degree contusions are considered the most serious form of bruising. “Polycontusions” is a term often seen in descriptions of injuries suffered by car crash victims.

At the end of the hearing, the judge formally charged him with aggravated femicide, a charge that comes with a 30-50 year prison sentence. According to ESPN Desportes reporter, Carlos Contreras Legaspi, that’s a charge specifically used in Mexican law to prosecute men who murder their partners. Nearly 1,000 crimes were labeled “femicide” by Mexican courts in 2021 and they come with longer, harsher sentences in an attempt to fight this type of violence against women.

Baroni was incarcerated in CERESO Venustiano Carranza State Jail in Tepic, where he’ll await trial. The judge granted prosecutors up to six months to finish their investigation so the trial could begin.