![\"Father-of-four](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/88db0fe3-133f-48d7-93df-8712231dbc50.png\")
Czarina’s killer Jessie James Tumaliuan, 42, barely reacted as he listened to Ms Gotencio read her statement at his pre-sentence hearing. (Nine)<\/p>\nPart of Maria Gotencio died the day her daughter Czarina was violently murdered.<\/p>\n
Fourteen months on and the pain remains constant as she struggles to support her four young grandchildren through their grief.<\/p>\n
“This loss is permanent and irreversible,” she told the Victorian Supreme Court today through tears.<\/p>\n
Czarina’s killer Jessie James Tumaliuan, 42, barely reacted as he listened to Ms Gotencio read her statement at his pre-sentence hearing. (Nine)<\/p>\n
“It is a life sentence of grief. The damage done to this family can never be undone.”<\/p>\n
Czarina’s killer Jessie James Tumaliuan, 42, barely reacted as he listened to Gotencio read her statement at his pre-sentence hearing.<\/p>\n
He admitted he murdered his wife Czarina Tumaliuan, 42, in the backyard of their Werribee home in Melbourne’s southwest on March 27 last year.<\/p>\n
Tumaliuan had forced his way inside the property and called his wife abusive names as he yelled at her about money.<\/p>\n
She tried to flee out the back door but he chased her down and used a kitchen knife to stab her eight times to the neck, head, chest and abdomen.<\/p>\n
The entire attack lasted 10 seconds.<\/p>\n
Tumaliuan then dragged his wife’s body to the back door before he sat down and called triple zero twice.<\/p>\n
He refused to let paramedics in but co-operated with police when they arrived.<\/p>\n
Gotencio said she wished she could have been there to protect her daughter.<\/p>\n
“A part of me died with her,” she told the court on a video link from the United States.<\/p>\n
Tumaliuan’s teenage son also read a statement to the court, saying he had lost the most important person in his world.<\/p>\n
“My mum is someone you would call a super-mum,” he said over the video link.<\/p>\n
“Now there is a big empty space in our hearts that cannot be fixed. It hurts so much that she is no longer with us.”<\/p>\n
Tumaliuan’s barrister Chris Hooper accepted the attack would have been terrifying for his wife, who was entitled to feel safe in her own home.<\/p>\n
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Mr Hooper told the court Tumaliuan also made no attempts to hide evidence or frustrate the police investigation, instead calling triple zero himself and waiting at the scene. (Nine)<\/p>\n
He conceded it was a very serious example of murder but argued his client had not attended the home with the intention of killing his wife.<\/p>\n
Hooper told the court Tumaliuan also made no attempts to hide evidence or frustrate the police investigation, instead calling triple zero himself and waiting at the scene.<\/p>\n
The barrister accepted the only expression of remorse has come from Tumaliuan’s guilty plea, which followed a sentence indication hearing in January.<\/p>\n
Justice Amanda Fox indicated she would sentence Tumaliuan up to 26 years behind bars if he pleaded guilty to murder.<\/p>\n
Hooper said while Tumaliuan had no diagnosed mental health or substance abuse issues, his time in custody would be more difficult as he was facing deportation back to the Philippines.<\/p>\n
But Justice Fox said Tumaliuan effectively had no ties to Australia, noting his family lived in the Philippines and his children were in the United States.<\/p>\n
“Whatever life he made here, he decimated when he committed this crime,” she said.<\/p>\n
Tumaliuan will officially be sentenced at a later date.<\/p>\n