(CN) - A man who admitted to stabbing his former lover to death in front of their 3-year-old son is not entitled to reunification services, a California appeals court ruled, because the killing was a "torturous act that would be reasonably understood to cause serious emotional damage to the child."
The father, identified as Jose O., said he knifed the mother to death in the kitchen during a domestic fight. Police found the 3-year-old sitting in the middle of the bloody scene, near his parents. He told officers, "Daddy killed Mommy" and said he was scared.
Reunification services would not be in the child's best interest, the 4th District Court of Appeals concluded.
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