The 13-year-old sought help for her mother, gathered three younger sisters and later became a key witness against her father.
PERTH AMBOY, N.J. — The first public record of the crisis came through the voice of a 13-year-old girl, who told a 911 dispatcher that her father was attacking her mother inside the family’s kitchen while three younger sisters remained in the house.
The emergency call became a central piece of evidence in the case against Wellington Leonardo, whose prosecution ended in July with a 20-year prison sentence for the death of his wife, Rosanna Rodriguez. A jury convicted Leonardo, 47, of passion-provocation manslaughter, weapons offenses and child endangerment after rejecting a murder charge. The verdict and sentence resolved the criminal case, but the 911 recording preserved the role forced upon the couple’s oldest child: She had to report the attack, follow instructions from a dispatcher and help move her sisters away from danger.
Reports of the court proceedings said the teenager awoke at about 3 a.m. on Sept. 21, 2024, after hearing her mother scream. When she entered the kitchen, she saw Rodriguez being attacked. Rodriguez urged her daughter to call police. The girl did so and told the dispatcher, “My dad is trying to stab my mom.” A portion of the call was played at an October 2024 detention hearing, and jurors later heard the recording during Leonardo’s trial. The audio allowed the prosecution to establish the urgency of the response without relying only on a later retelling of what the child had experienced.
The dispatcher told the girl to stay with her younger sisters, go into a room, lock the door and open a window so they could signal to arriving officers. The other children were 11 years old, 3 years old and 11 months old, according to reports based on the proceedings. The teenager was therefore placed in charge of children ranging from middle-school age to infancy while their mother remained in the kitchen. Accounts presented in court said she gathered the girls in their mother’s bedroom and waited for police to reach the house.
The oldest daughter also tried to interrupt the attack herself. According to court reporting, she returned toward the kitchen and threw a bag at her father’s head. The effort did not end the violence. She then turned back to the task of protecting her sisters and following the dispatcher’s instructions. That sequence became relevant beyond the homicide charge because it demonstrated the children’s direct exposure to the incident. Prosecutors did not describe them as distant occupants who slept through the emergency; the oldest child witnessed it, called for help and acted to shield the others.
Police responding to the Bertrand Avenue home found Rodriguez and Leonardo on the kitchen floor. Early reports said both had blood on them. Officers and emergency personnel provided aid, and Rodriguez was taken to Hackensack Meridian Health Raritan Bay Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead. Leonardo was transported to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital for treatment. Authorities did not initially release a full description of his injuries. The official announcement identified the two as Rosana Rodriguez and Wellinton Leonardo, spellings that differed from those used in later trial and sentencing reports.
Investigators arrested Leonardo and accused him of first-degree murder, weapons violations and endangering the welfare of a child. At the detention hearing weeks after the killing, Assistant Prosecutor Brian Shevlin asked the judge to keep him jailed until trial. Defense attorney Daniel Gonzalez pointed to injuries on Leonardo’s hands and arms and said the evidence could support self-defense. The prosecutor rejected that position and cited the wounds suffered by Rodriguez. The court ordered Leonardo held, but the defense was allowed to continue contesting the state’s murder theory as the case moved toward trial.
The prosecution also presented evidence that Rodriguez had told Leonardo she wanted to end their marriage. That allegation supplied context for the confrontation, though motive and legal responsibility still had to be decided through the trial process. The state pursued murder, which required jurors to evaluate Leonardo’s state of mind and the circumstances surrounding the fatal act. The defense challenged the prosecution’s interpretation. Jurors ultimately declined to convict him of murder but found him guilty of passion-provocation manslaughter, a lesser homicide offense that still established his criminal responsibility for Rodriguez’s death.
The child-endangerment findings gave separate legal weight to what the daughters experienced. Leonardo was convicted on counts tied to the four children’s presence during the attack. Their ages made the risk especially severe: The youngest was still an infant, while the oldest was asked by circumstances to take on an emergency role normally expected of an adult. The convictions recognized that the violence affected more than Rodriguez and Leonardo. It placed children in immediate danger and made one of them both a witness and a participant in efforts to summon help.
At sentencing, Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Andrea Carter imposed a 20-year term. Reports said Leonardo must serve 85% of the sentence before he can be considered for parole. Carter also restricted him from contacting his daughters unless they decide they want contact. The condition avoids requiring the children to maintain a relationship with the parent convicted of killing their mother. It also acknowledges that their views may differ or change over time, leaving the choice with them rather than with Leonardo.
Leonardo told the court he missed Rodriguez and wished he could change what had happened. Her sisters challenged his claim of remorse and directed the court’s attention to the future facing the children. Rosalia Rodriguez said the family had been left with an emptiness that could not be filled and spoke of the daughters visiting their mother’s grave instead of hearing her voice. Lisbeth Rodriguez described the length of the loss in another way, saying the girls would grieve their mother for more years than they were able to have her in their lives.
Family and community accounts added details about Rodriguez that were largely absent from the criminal filings. An obituary and fundraising material said she came from the Dominican Republic, lived in Perth Amboy and worked as an apartment inspector. Relatives called her compassionate and caring. Mayor Helmin Caba described the death as heartbreaking, and residents attended memorial events after the killing. Those accounts framed Rodriguez as more than the victim identified in charging documents: She was a city worker, a sister and the mother at the center of a household with four young girls.
Public sources differ about whether Rodriguez was 39 or 40 when she died. The prosecutor’s initial announcement identified her as 40, while later court coverage described her as 39 and said she was days from her 40th birthday. Sources also vary between Rosana and Rosanna, and between Wellinton and Wellington. The differences appear to reflect inconsistent spellings and age references across official, family and media accounts. The underlying facts of the prosecution remain consistent: Rodriguez died after the kitchen attack, Leonardo was charged, and a jury convicted him of the lesser homicide offense and related crimes.
The emergency recording now stands as one of the clearest records of the night. It captured a child reporting violence in real time, a dispatcher trying to guide four sisters to safety and police moving toward the home. It later followed the case into court, first as evidence supporting Leonardo’s detention and then as part of the trial record considered by jurors. The final sentence determines how long Leonardo will remain imprisoned. It cannot remove the burden placed on the daughter whose call began the official response or restore the mother she was trying to save.
Author note: Last updated Aug. 4, 2026.