Thread: Tampa police: Man kills girlfriend with machete in front of

He speaks no English and is 39 years old. He is receiving dissability payments.

Tampa police: Man kills girlfriend with machete in front of her teens
By Jessica Vander Velde, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Tuesday, August 10, 2010

TAMPA — Two teen girls saw their mother brutally slain with a machete Sunday in their Tampa home.

From the kitchen, they could hear her screams. They ran to her bedroom door and kicked it down. When they saw the attacker's face, they fled out of fear.

"Run! Run!" one of them said he yelled after them, in Spanish.

Police charged Alexander Cote Ferrer, 39, with second-degree murder in the Sunday night death of his longtime girlfriend, Danitza Fonseca, 50. They say he stabbed her with a machete.

The young women say they had warned their mother for years that the domestic violence might turn fatal. Just last January, Cote Ferrer threatened one of them, 18-year-old Jennifer Fonseca, and her mother with a machete and an aluminum baseball bat, Tampa police say.

Jennifer Fonseca grabbed a kitchen knife to defend herself and her mom, court records state. They called 911.

In a sworn statement about the January incident, now in court files, Danitza Fonseca wrote that her boyfriend has mental health problems and that he's aggressive. For two weeks before that attack, he had not been taking his medication, she wrote.

"I can't help him any more," she wrote.

But last month, she told prosecutors she wanted to drop the case. He was receiving mental health counseling, she said. In early July, the case was closed.

Domestic violence experts say it's common for victims to hope their lovers will change.

"You see cases where the batterer is able to convince the survivor that he will change, that he has changed," said Leisa Wiseman, spokeswoman for the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

Danitza Fonseca's youngest daughter, 16-year-old GiGi Fonseca, who also witnessed Sunday's attack, said her mother thought she could help her boyfriend through prayer and hard work.

She drove him to mental health appointments and picked up his medications, GiGi Fonseca said.

The couple received disability checks — she for health problems and he for mental issues, GiGi Fonseca said.

"She felt as if Alex's problems could be cured," she said. "But sometimes people can't change."

Speaking from the front porch of their home near the Port of Tampa, Danitza Fonseca's daughters said they saw signs that the attack was planned.

On Saturday, Danitza Fonseca's eldest daughter, Greilhys Quijada, 33, couldn't find any forks or knives in the house, she said.

On Sunday, Cote Ferrer asked the two teen daughters, as well as Jennifer Fonseca's boyfriend, to make dinner, drawing them to the kitchen during the attack, GiGi Fonseca said.

When the three of them ran out of the house, they found the gate locked, forcing them to jump over the fence. Later, they discovered knives in the back shed, where Cote Ferrer had spent several hours drinking Bacardi Gold rum earlier Sunday, GiGi Fonseca said.

"I'm just so upset that we weren't able to stop this," she said.

She and Jennifer Fonseca said they aren't sure where they'll go or what they'll do to support themselves. Their father died several years ago from brain cancer, GiGi Fonseca said.

They're also not sure how they'll pay for their mother's funeral. She had asked to be buried, GiGi Fonseca said, and they'll find a way.

"She was very loving," Quijada said. "She just wanted to help him."

http://www.tampabay.com/news/tampa-poli ... te/1114085



No bond for accused machete killer
Cary Williams
Aug 10, 2010 2:07 p.m.

A Tampa man accused of killing his girlfriend with a machete appeared in court and was denied bond Tuesday morning.

Judge Walter Heinrich told Alexander Cote-Ferrer that prosecutors "have a very good case against you." Cote-Ferrer, who does not speak English and had an interpreter, showed no emotion during his brief court appearance.

Police say 50-year-old Danitza Fonseca was slashed to death late Sunday in her home on East Thrace Street.

Moments later, Fonseca's two teenage daughters, Gigi and Jennifer, said they broke into the room and witnessed the gory scene.

"We saw him with the machete in his hands. We saw the scars all over her, her face, her body. There was blood everywhere. There was blood all over him," she said. "That is when we looked into his eyes and he gave us a crazy look, letting us know he was coming after us," said Gigi, 16.

Tampa Police said there was a history of violence. Last January, Cote-Ferrar was arrested for threatening Fonseca with a machete.

That weapon remains in police evidence. Cote-Ferrer might still be in custody, but prosecutors say Fonseca refused to press charges.

Gigi said she tried to warn her mother that Cote-Ferrer was dangerous. "We told her it will come to this, where he will hurt her and hurt us. But she really believed in her heart she could change him."

The sisters lost their father to cancer several years ago. They hope to live with other family members.

Cote-Ferrer is charged with second-degree murder and aggravated assault.
http://togo.abcactionnews.com/w/main/story/13032052/

This does not surprise me. There are alot of stabbings which some result in death in the Hispanic community. They had a similar situation in the City of Miami where the teenage daughter witnessed the father stab the mother to death. Then there is this one which is the most disguisting of all where those who responded to the call ended up being sent home from work afterwards or to speak to an psychologist. I am waiting for her booking info to see if she has an immigration hold as she is Dominican and lived in an area where there are predominently illegals

Hollywood woman accused of stabbing herself, 3-year-old son was due in court

7:24 a.m. EDT, August 13, 2010

HOLLYWOOD — Mirtha Arias had been under orders to appear in a Pennsylvania courtroom Thursday, responding to claims she had failed to share custody of her 3-year-old son with the boy's father.

Instead, police said, Arias sliced her son's throat with a box cutter and then tried to kill herself the same way at their Hollywood apartment.

The child, Sebastian Capriotti, was in critical but stable condition late Thursday, and was able to tell police how his mother attacked him, said Hollywood Police Lt. Scott Pardon.

The mother also remained in critical but stable condition at Memorial Regional Hospital. She was charged with attempted murder.

Arias' older son, Cesar Rivera, 14, awoke at around 9 a.m. Thursday and, finding blood all over the house, called 911. Police did not describe the state of the apartment in the 6100 block of Cleveland Street, but fire-rescue officials said the scene was so horrific that workers had permission to go home or seek counseling.

Arias and her 3-year-old son were severely cut in the neck.

Homicide detectives determined Arias was despondent over the ongoing custody battle with the child's father, James Capriotti of Hazleton, Pa.

Broward court records show the mother filed for a restraining order against James Capriotti in June.

In her petition, Arias claimed that Capriotti traveled to Hollywood in June and insisted on taking the child back to his home state. When the mother refused, Capriotti allegedly threatened to beat her in front of witnesses at the Seminole Hard Rock Cafe, where the two had agreed to meet.

He threatened to take the child, but the mother's witnesses intervened and she managed to drive away, according to the affidavit.

"I fear for my life and the lives of my children," she wrote.

A hearing on the restraining order was scheduled for earlier this week, but postponed until October.

Capriotti claimed through his attorney that Arias had refused to comply with a 2007 court agreement to share custody of their child. Capriotti claimed Arias repeatedly refused to make any arrangements for him to see the boy, or have contact by phone.

And when Sebastian did speak on the phone, his mother would order him to speak only in Spanish, the father said.

A judge ordered Arias to appear in court on Thursday or risk arrest, according to court records.

Capriotti and his attorney could not be reached Thursday for comment. Police were able to contact him.

Hollywood authorities said Arias and her two sons were the only people known to live in the Cleveland Street apartment.

Neighbors said there were no signs that the mother was despondent.

Lucy Silva, whose son attends school with the older boy, said she saw Arias and her children playing in a kiddie pool outside the apartment last Sunday.

"She was always with her kids," said Silva.

Some of the police and rescue workers appeared visibly shaken by the scene, said Division Chief Mark Steele of Hollywood Fire Rescue.

Assistant City Manager Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark said personnel would be allowed to go home or seek counseling through the city's assistance program, Steele said.

"This is one of those that is really a time bomb," he said. "We have a lot of young men and women who see a lot of things, and they take it home. They have the option to go home after something as horrific as this."

Staff researcher Barbara Hijek contributed to this report.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/browar ... 5518.story