Yonkers man, 71, pleads guilty to murder for stabbing, bludgeoning wife, 46
By Rebecca Baker The Journal News • November 12, 2008
WHITE PLAINS - A 71-year-old Yonkers man pleaded guilty this morning to murdering his wife, who was stabbed 30 times and bludgeoned with a mallet. In exchange for a prison term of 15 years to life, Mario Girau admitted to killing Maria Montalvo-Girau inside their Tuckahoe Road home last year.
He will be sentenced Jan. 16 for second-degree murder, a felony that carries a maximum sentence of 25 years to life. His son from a previous marriage, Mario Jr., spoke to his father in a courthouse holding cell moments before the elder Girau took the plea deal in Westchester County Court.
At his arraignment in January, Assistant District Attorney Lana Hochheiser had said Girau "brutally and horrifically" stabbed his 46-year-old wife in the chest, back and abdomen a total of 30 times, and beat her head with a mallet.
The victim's then 6-year-old son, Nathaniel, was home during the killing and saw his mother's bloody body on the floor. Hochheiser was going to put the boy on the stand, but the guilty plea will spare him from testifying.
The boy, now 7, is living with Girau's daughter in Westchester County, defense lawyer David Rich said.
Girau had told police he didn't remember if he killed his wife, but said he did remember arguing with her about how much time she spent on the computer the night before she was killed.
Montalvo-Girau was a mother of four children and a nurse who had worked with the blind.
Girau, a retired merchant seaman, has 11 children.
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