Perth Amboy Man Convicted For Killing Wife; He Had Hit Her Before, Daughter Testifies

PERTH AMBOY, NJ — A Perth Amboy man was convicted of manslaughter Monday for stabbing his wife to death in 2024. Prosecutors say he killed his wife in the kitchen of their home while their four daughters, ages 13, 11, 3 and 11 months, hid in the bedroom, and their oldest daughter tried to intervene — unsuccessfully — to save her mother's life.

A Middlesex County jury found Wellington Leonardo, 46, guilty of passion/provocation manslaughter, two illegal weapons offenses and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child, one count for each of their four children.

He will be held in the Middlesex County jail until he is sentenced in June.

Leonardo stabbed his wife, Rosana Rodriguez, 40, to death in the kitchen of their apartment on Bertrand Avenue in Perth Amboy at 2:57 a.m. Sept. 21, 2024. This was after Rodriguez told Leonardo she wanted to end their marriage, according to police.

The couple's oldest daughter, 13, told authorities she woke up in the middle of the night to the sounds of her mother screaming. She told police her father came home drunk that night, as he often had before, according to MyCentralJersey.

The teen girl left her bedroom and walked out to see her father, Leonardo, stabbing her mother in the stomach area, according to a Perth Amboy Police affidavit of this case. Her mother yelled for her to call 911 and the girl did, running into her mother's room to call for help. When she returned to the kitchen, she told police her father was still stabbing her mother and she tried to intervene by throwing a black bag at his head to get him to stop.

"It resulted in him turning and looking at her with a blank stare," read the affidavit.

After calling 911, the girl retreated into her mother's room and waited there with her younger sisters until police arrived. She told her younger sisters their mother would be OK.

She was not OK.

When police first arrived to the home, they found Rodriguez lying on her back on the floor of the kitchen. Her husband was lying partially on top of her. Both were covered in blood, and a silver kitchen knife was located near Leonardo's feet, according to the affidavit.

The woman was rushed to Raritan Bay Medical Center, where she was later pronounced dead due to multiple stab wounds.

Perth Amboy Police had been called to the home before, and Leonardo had previously hit Rodriguez multiple times before, the oldest daughter told prosecutors, according to MyCentralJersey.com.

Rodriguez was memorialized in this GoFundMe set up to raise money for the four girls.

Prior on this case: Teen Girl Tried To Save Mother As Husband Stabbed Her To Death: Police (October, 2024)

Perth Amboy Man Accused Of Fatally Stabbing Wife With Kids Present (Sept., 2024)