Long Beach man accused of killing 7-year-old in front of child's mother bound over for trial Monday

A 30-year-old Long Beach man accused of slashing his girlfriend's 7-year-old son to death while trying to kill her as well as ordered Monday to stand trial for the slaying and stabbings.

Peniamina Tomasi is charged with murder and attempted murder for the Jan. 8 attack that killed 7-year-old Felix Sandoval and that left Sandoval's mother with multiple slash wounds.

The accused was arrested Jan. 8, after police responded to the apartment complex in the 500 block of East Pleasant Street following reports of an injured woman screaming, "He's killing my son."

The bleeding and near-hysterical woman directed police to a man standing in the doorway of a nearby apartment, but the man closed the door and locked it before officers could come inside.

Officers forced their way in and found Tomasi and the 7-year-old boy, who had been stabbed repeatedly. The child was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at a local emergency room, police said.

Police said Tomasi and his 27-year-old girlfriend lived in the apartment with Felix and seven other children, ranging in age from 4 months old to 10 years old. The couple each have three children of their own and two young girls together, neighbors said.

Neighbors said the couple, though they lived in a cramped two-bedroom apartment, seemed happy and were never heard fighting before Friday's incident.

One neighbor said the woman and her children moved into the North Long Beach apartment near Atlantic Avenue and Del Amo Boulevard about two years ago and that Tomasi moved in with his children a year later.

Authorities said there were no records of any other major incidents at that apartment unit within the past two years

Tomasi was ordered to return to the Long Beach Superior Court on March 16th for his second arraignment. He is being held in the Men's Central Jail in Los Angeles in lieu of $2 million bail.