Local News in Brief : Man Gets 12 Years in Knife Attack on Wife

A Woodland Hills man was sentenced to 12 years in prison Wednesday for a knife attack on his wife that left her disabled and brain-damaged.

Alan Robert Rodin, 38, pleaded guilty in December to assault with a deadly weapon in the Thanksgiving, 1987, stabbing attack on his wife, Palma Mirabella, 33.

After an argument over Rodin’s use of heroin and cocaine, Rodin stabbed Mirabella with a kitchen knife, slashing her carotid artery and severing her jugular vein, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Rebecca Dewees. Shortly after the attack, Rodin summoned paramedics.

Mirabella is now confined to a wheelchair, having suffered permanent nerve damage, Dewees said. Doctors have said that she will not regain the ability to walk and must be under a live-in nurse’s care, Dewees said.

Mirabella urged Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Alan B. Haber to impose the maximum term on Rodin. She told the judge that Rodin’s attack had left her unable to care for herself.

“He’s ruined my life,” she said.

Rodin claimed that Mirabella came toward him with an ashtray and that he “blocked her assault,” by raising his hand, according to a probation report. He said that he was holding a wineglass in his hand and that the stem broke and hit Mirabella in the throat, the probation report said.

Rodin, who was on parole for armed robbery at the time of the stabbing, will be eligible for parole again in 6 years.