Prison for ‘horrific’ stabbing
Hatfield man will serve up to 40 years for killing his wife
Calling it a “case of horrific domestic violence,” a judge sent a Hatfield man to prison for up to four decades for fatally stabbing his wife during an argument that occurred in their home as their marriage unraveled.
“This is a case of horrific domestic violence… power, authority, control. You had an extreme indifference to the value of human life. That human life had extraordinary value until you took it away,” Montgomery County Judge Steven T. O’Neill addressed admitted killer Walid Esmit Mitwalli on Monday.
O’Neill sentenced Mitwalli to 15 to 40 years in a state correctional facility in connection with the June 7, 2013, fatal stabbing of his wife, Mona, inside the couple’s home in the 2900 block of Denbeigh Drive during the early
morning hours while the couple’s twin 5-year-old daughters slept upstairs.
“This was a killing with malice. There was nothing but malice,” said O’Neill, adding that malice was demonstrated every time Mitwalli plunged a kitchen carving knife into his wife’s body.
Testimony revealed Mona Mitwalli suffered more than
20 stab and cutting wounds to her chest, neck, back and face. A wound to her throat perforated her trachea, testimony revealed. The victim also sustained defensive injuries to both arms and hands.
Mitwalli, 39, who previously pleaded guilty to a charge of third-degree murder, did not react to the sentence. But moments before learning his fate Mitwalli begged for forgiveness from his wife’s sisters and parents who grieved and sobbed in the courtroom
gallery.
“The remorse I feel, no words can accurately explain. I have been stripped bare of dignity and now I have nothing left. If only I could turn back the clock, I would,” said Mitwalli, appearing to wipe tears from his eyes at times as he discussed his children. “I pray that God will somehow allow my children to forgive me although I know that may never happen.”
The victim’s sisters and parents tearfully testified about their loss, describing Mona Mitwalli as an “amazing” woman who worked as a physical therapist with children and who loved her daughters. During one excruciatingly painful moment, a relative showed the judge a drawing by one of Mona’s daughters, who depicted her mother as an angel looking over them.
“She was like our rock, our glue,” Amal Elsweti said about her sister, Mona.
The couple’s children are now living with the victim’s relatives.
Testimony revealed the couple had been going through divorce proceedings and arguing about custody of the children and about the victim’s infidelity.
“You have a very controlling
person who wants things his way and it’s not working out that way. He lost control of her and he couldn’t live with that. This is deliberate. It’s a killing with malice,” said District Attorney Kevin R. Steele, who argued for the 15-to40-year sentence.
Steele, assisted by coprosecutor Brianna Ringwood, argued Mitwalli tried to clean up the bloody crime scene and even made a “bogus” audio recording to try to make it appear that his wife attacked him with a knife and he reacted in selfdefense.
“He had his two kids upstairs. That’s who he is. That’s the window into his soul,” Steele argued.
Third-degree murder is a killing committed with malice, one in which the slayer acts with a hardness of heart, wickedness of disposition or an extreme indifference for the value of human life.
Defense lawyer John I. McMahon Jr., who previously hinted at waging self-defense or a mental infirmity defense on behalf of Mitwalli if the case went to trial, argued for less prison time. Echoing comments made my Mitwalli, McMahon argued the “terrible,
terrible tragedy” occurred when Mitwalli flew into a violent frenzy when faced with evidence of his wife’s infidelities.
“This was a man who totally snapped and lost control. This was an act, in essence, of emotional explosion. This was a man in a violent outrage, frenzy. He basically flipped out,” McMahon argued.
Mitwalli claimed his wife came at him with a knife and that he grabbed the knife from her and stabbed her many times during his rage.
“I reacted in impulse and anger,” Mitwalli claimed.
Prosecutors rejected Mitwalli’s claims of self-defense.
Hatfield police responded to the home after Mitwalli called 911 about 3:30 a.m. and stated that he had stabbed his wife to death after she attacked him with a knife, according to court documents.
Police alleged they found Mona Mitwalli’s body lying in a pool of blood in the family room, a 14-inch kitchen carving knife on the floor next to her.
The investigation by county detectives and Hatfield police “revealed difficulties in the Mitwallis’ marriage and an escalating pattern of behavior on the part of the defendant,” prosecutors alleged in court documents. County detective Michael Begley testified about the disintegration of the relationship, including Mitwalli’s hiring a private investigator to follow his wife and installing surveillance cameras inside and outside the
home in the months leading up to the killing.
On April 9, 2013, Mitwalli filed for divorce. Two days later, on April 11, according to court papers, Mitwalli met with his inlaws at a New Jersey hotel and showed them surveillance pictures, GPS coordinates and other records on his computer, telling them he had been tracking his wife’s “every move” and had set up recording devices in the house and in her car to prove that she was cheating on him.
Later on April 11, according to court documents, Mitwalli tried to have his wife involuntarily committed to a county mental health facility, claiming his wife had threatened to kill herself with a knife. However, following a psychological evaluation, a doctor at the facility determined that Mrs. Mitwalli was “not in need of emergency treatment, nor was she suicidal, but involved in a domestic dispute,” and she was discharged that same night, according to court records.
On April 12, court records indicate, Mitwalli applied for and was granted a temporary Protection From Abuse order against his wife in county court, although a judge dismissed the PFA on April 18.
Following that PFA hearing, according to an arrest affidavit, Mona Mitwalli told her nanny that her husband had texted her, telling her that “he did all these things (to her) to get back at her for her cheating.”
“This is a case of horrific domestic violence … power, authority, control. You had an extreme indifference to the value of human life. That human life had extraordinary value until you took it away.” — Montgomery County Judge Steven T. O’Neill, speaking to wife-killer Walid Mitwalli