Courts: Marco Violante is ordered to stand trial on murder charge following testimony by 12-year-old witness.

A 12-year-old girl burst into tears on the witness stand Thursday as she described how she watched, horrified, from the passenger seat of a parked car while a former boyfriend slashed her mother’s throat.

It was only the second time she has cried since her mother’s slaying June 9, the seventh-grader later told Rosa Prendiz, a victim-witness coordinator with the Van Nuys offices of the city attorney.

“She told me she wanted to cry at the funeral,” Prendiz said. “But she screamed.”

The day before her 12th birthday, Prendiz said, the girl accompanied her mother to Van Nuys Airport to watch the planes land. They stopped at a convenience store, bought soft drinks, then met a man she identified as her mother’s former boyfriend--Marco Antonio Violante--at the airport.

The girl testified at a preliminary hearing in Van Nuys Municipal Court that she sat in the front seat with her mother, while Violante sat in the back seat. According to prosecutors, the two adults began to argue.

“Suddenly, I heard my mom scream. She was yelling for him not to do it,” said the girl, who wore a T-shirt memorializing slain tejano singer Selena.

“He was trying to stab my mom and cut her throat. He had it up against her neck. He was, like, sliding it in.”

She said she screamed and pleaded with him to stop.

“And then he kicked me in the face,” she said.

“He told me to duck and not look at anything,” she added, dissolving into tears.

Municipal Court Judge Robert L. Swasey, noting that the young witness was “somewhat distraught,” called for a short break. Meanwhile, her 4-year-old brother, seated with his aunts and grandmother in the spectator’s section, also began to cry.

The girl asked for emotional support from an uncle, who stood at her side as she completed her testimony, describing how she ran toward a pickup truck where two workers were eating lunch. They summoned help at a nearby fire station.

After hearing the girl’s testimony, Swasey ordered Violante, 40, to stand trial for murder and two counts of assault.

Police and prosecutors are alleging that the mother was stabbed 25 times by Violante, who was arrested an hour later, allegedly sitting in a vacant flight-school building and holding a 10-inch butcher knife.

Violante had struck the victim during a fight in February, according to police. But when officers arrived at the scene, she said Violante was not responsible and no charges were filed.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Eduards Abele said Violante will be arraigned in Van Nuys Superior Court on Aug. 10.