Van Nuys : Girl Testifies to Seeing Her Mother Slain

Twelve-year-old Jesselyn Monge testified Friday that she saw her mother’s boyfriend stab her mother to death, on the first day of trial for Marco Antonio Violante, who is accused of murdering Martha Vasquez near Van Nuys Airport last June.

Violante, 40, has pleaded not guilty to one count of murder and two counts of assault with great bodily injury. Prosecutors say he stabbed Vasquez 25 times with a butcher knife while her daughter sat near the couple in a car.

Jesselyn remained composed during her testimony, at times looking Violante directly in the face.

She was followed on the stand by her older sister, Beatriz Hernandez, 17, who testified that several months earlier her mother had come home from a date with Violante with bruises and cuts on her face and one eye nearly swollen shut. In testimony that Judge Michael Hoff is considering striking from the record, she said that Violante told her at that time that if she or her mother went to the police, he would take revenge on the children.

Outside of the jury’s presence, Beatriz, breaking into tears, testified that Violante told her at that time that she should “thank God that I didn’t kill her.”