Wife Stabbed Dead By Husband, Both Found Lying On Kitchen Floor In NJ: Prosecutor

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Officers responding to a 911 call on reports of a stabbing in a Bertrand Avenue residence found Rosana Rodriguez lying on the kitchen floor next to her husband, Wellington Leonardo, just before 3 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 21, Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone and Perth Amboy Police Chief Lawrence Cattano said.

Rodriguez appeared to have been stabbed, the prosecutor and chief said. Officers rendered aid and Rodriguez was taken to Hackensack Meridian Hospital Raritan Bay Medical Center where she was later pronounced dead. Leonardo was brought to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital for further treatment of undisclosed injuries, police said.

An initial investigation led by Detective Danny Hernandez of the Perth Amboy Police Department and Detective Michelle Coppola of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office determined that this was not a random act of violence and that the victim and Leonardo were married.

Leonardo was charged with first-degree murder, second-degree unlawful possession of a weapon, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and endangering the welfare of a child as the stabbing took place in the presence of children, police said.

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