Wellington Leonardo: New Jersey Father Gets 20-Year Sentence for Killing Wife While Daughters Were Home

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A Perth Amboy man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison this week for stabbing his wife to death, and tragically, their four young daughters were inside the home when it happened.

Wellington Leonardo, 47, had been convicted of passion-provocation manslaughter in the death of 39-year-old Rosanna Rodriguez, and this verdict spared him a murder conviction, but it still carried a lengthy term. 

Under the sentence handed down Wednesday, he must serve 85 percent of the time before he can be considered for parole.


Rosanna Rodriguez 



The case traces back to the early morning hours of September 21, 2024, when police were called to the couple’s residence in Perth Amboy. 

Court documents later revealed that Rodriguez had told Leonardo she wanted to end their marriage, and that conversation reportedly led to the violent encounter in the kitchen. 

The victim was just days shy of her 40th birthday, when the tragedy happened, as reported by Law & Crime.

What unfolded inside the home was witnessed by the couple’s oldest daughter, who was 13 years old at the time. 

She told investigators that she was woken up around 3 a.m. by her mother’s screams, and when she walked into the kitchen she found her father stabbing her mother in the stomach. 

Rodriguez was still conscious and begged her daughter to call 911, so the girl immediately dialed for help.

During the emergency call, which prosecutors played for the jury at trial, the teenager can be heard saying, “My dad is trying to stab my mom.” 

The dispatcher then told her to take her three sisters—ages 11, 3, and 11 months—into a locked room, and to signal arriving officers by waving out a window. 

Before she did that, the girl made a desperate attempt to stop her father, throwing a bag at his head. He simply stared back at her, according to police reports, and she then gathered her siblings into her mother’s bedroom to wait for help.




When officers arrived at the scene, they discovered both Leonardo and Rodriguez on the kitchen floor, covered in blood. 

Leonardo was transported to one hospital for medical care, while Rodriguez was rushed to a separate facility, where she was pronounced dead.

The jury, after hearing all the evidence, acquitted Leonardo of the top charge of murder but found him guilty of the lesser manslaughter count. 

He was also convicted of weapons-related offenses and felony child endangerment for the trauma inflicted on the four children who were present in the home.

The sentence means the earliest Leonardo could be released on parole is after he serves 17 years, a timeline that accounts for the 85 percent requirement under New Jersey law. 

The case left a community reeling and four sisters without their mother, their own voices forever woven into the record of what happened that night.

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