"Sweet but Psycho" Viral Killer
By: Emmalina Alessandrya
Tags: Short Read, Mental Health, True Crime, Murder, Tik Tok

"Sweet but Psycho" Viral Killer

Recently, a 2013 video of Isabella Guzman in court went semi-viral on Tik Tok with the famous song “Sweet but Psycho” dubbed over it.

Like the title of the song, she has a sweet-looking face. Also, she stabbed her mother 151 times in the face and torso while her father was just downstairs.

“Sweet but psycho”

Isabella Guzman in court, Photo by Denver7

It happened back in 2013 when Isabella Guzman was only 18 at the time. Her parents were separated and she was living with her biological mother, Yun Mi Hoy, and her stepfather, Ryan Hoy. It was reported that she’d had a complicated relationship with her mother from a young age. When Isabella was 18, she wanted to drop out of high school even though she would graduate soon. It upset her parents and there were many arguments that followed.

The day before the murder, Yun Mi called the police on Isabella, as her daughter’s behavior had grown erratic. She had sent disturbing emails. However, there wasn’t much the police could do, and they warned Isabella Guzman that her mother could legally kick her out of the house.

On the day of the murder, Isabella’s biological father, Robert Guzman, visited her, to talk about her behavior towards her mother. Before leaving, Robert thought that their talk managed to calm her down.

As covered in Denver7, later that night, Yun Mi went upstairs for a shower while her husband was downstairs. Ryan Hoy suddenly heard a thump and went upstairs to check on his wife. He found the bathroom door locked and a pool of blood seeping through underneath the door.

Panicked, he called the police as he struggled to open the door. Moments later, the door swung open and Isabella stepped out with a knife in her hand. Without words, she merely looked straight ahead and walked past him. Yun Mi was lying there in a pool of blood on the bathroom floor with multiple stab wounds to her face and neck. Hoy tried to do chest compressions on his wife but despite his efforts, his wife died.

Isabella Guzman was later arrested in a nearby parking garage. She was charged with one count of first-degree murder and two counts of crime of violence. The judge reportedly had to postpone the date of the hearing because Isabella Guzman refused to leave her cell.

The Trial

During the hearing, she was caught smiling at the camera. She pleaded not guilty under reasons of insanity. The psychiatrist said that Isabella Guzman was hallucinating, staring into space, talking to people who were not there, and laughing on her own. Isabella claimed that on the day of the murder, she was under the delusion that Yun Mi was not her mother but a woman named Cecelia, who must be killed to save the world.

After reviewing the evaluation from the state’s mental hospital, the judge accepted the plea. She was sent to a mental institution, Colorado Mental Health Institution, indefinitely, where she was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

In an interview with CBS4 in November 2018 , Isabella claimed that she was abused at home for many years and it got worse when she left her religion, Jehovah’s Witnesses. She stated that she wished to be released from the mental institution as she was no longer a danger to society or herself, due to her medication.

This case left the people of the internet conflicted. Some sympathized with Isabella Guzman as she was mentally ill and her actions were not her own. Some even questioned the court’s verdict.