Man charged with stabbing ex, kidnapping daughter
Police say he slashed former girlfriend’s throat and took off with the toddler in victim’s vehicle
SAN JOSE >> Victor Magana, the man who spurred a statewide manhunt after he allegedly slashed his ex-girlfriend’s throat and took off with their 2-yearold daughter, told investigators that he flew into a rage and that his brain went into a “primitive mode” over a conversation about the victim’s new boyfriend, according to newly filed court documents.
As she was being hospitalized for serious wounds, the woman was able to tell a police officer that during her fleeting bouts of consciousness, she could hear Magana yelling, “Just (expletive) die already!” as he choked her, according to a police report. Even in her condition, she could definitively name her attacker.
Magana, 24, was charged Wednesday with attempted murder and kidnapping in the brutal episode that began Sunday night at a downtown San Jose apartment and ended Monday morning at a gas station in the central California town of Cambria, where civilians recognized him from an Amber Alert and physically restrained him for arriving authorities.
Magana was arraigned in a San Jose courtroom Wednesday and is being held at the Santa Clara County Main Jail without bail because he is on probation for a 2017 vehicle theft conviction related to a prior family violence charge. He is scheduled to return to court Jan. 6.
“Mr. Magana tried to kill his girlfriend by stabbing her in the back with a knife, slitting her throat with a box cutter and strangling her with a USB cord,”
Deputy District Attorney Erica Engin said. “Thankfully, she was able to escape from him and is expected to survive and recover from her injuries.”
If convicted on all charges, Magana faces life in prison. Police and court records show that he had two domestic violence encounters with his ex-girlfriend earlier this year, though none led to charges.
At the hospital Sunday night, the victim said “she kept telling police that he was going to kill her