Slaying Suspect’s Mother Testifies About Wild Attack : Trial: Anaheim woman says her son, accused in child’s death, stabbed and beat her and her boyfriend. He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

The murder trial of Michael Robert Pacewitz opened Wednesday with his mother’s account of his troubled mental history and the violent series of events that culminated in the brutal stabbing death of a 3-year-old girl earlier this year.

Pacewitz has entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. He is charged with the March 2 attempted murders of his mother, Elena Fontaine, her boyfriend, Juan Martinez Marin, and the March 3 murder of Marcelline Onick.

Since his arrest, Pacewitz, 21, has told reporters that he killed the girl on orders from Satan.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Bryan F. Brown, during his opening remarks, told the jury that Marcelline had been found with 44 stab wounds, nearly decapitated and her spinal column severed.

Brown told the jury that Pacewitz went to his mother’s Anaheim apartment March 2 and took after her with a steak knife, slashing her in the neck as she screamed for help. The prosecutor said Pacewitz was angry at his mother for failing to find him help for his mental problems.

Fontaine sobbed when she was asked to identify her son in the courtroom and tearfully told the jury that her son has had a history of mental disorders since 1988. She said he had been hospitalized in a Ventura institution and was treated as an outpatient at a local facility. She also described several instances when her son would disrobe at odd times in the home and in public.

On the morning of the March 2 attack, Fontaine testified, her son came to her apartment and told her that his “brain was not feeling right” and he wanted help. She said the two of them sought counseling at a local church but Pacewitz left the church crying.

She testified that Pacewitz returned to her apartment that evening visibly angry.

“He didn’t say hello,” Fontaine said, now composed and looking straight ahead. “He just kept glaring at me. I apologized if I had upset him that morning. He just looked at me with those glassy eyes. The next thing I knew he had come into my room with a knife in his hand. He said, ‘You lied to me and I’m going to kill you!’ ”

Fontaine said Pacewitz then stabbed her in the neck and punched her in the right eye. She managed to escape his grasp and hide in the bathroom, she said, but her son kicked down the bathroom door to continue beating her.

Marin, who also testified Wednesday, told the jury that he was at the apartment during the alleged attack and tried to help Fontaine but her son threw him back several times.

After Fontaine managed to struggle free, Marin said, the defendant turned on him, slashing him on the hands.

On cross examination by Deputy Public Defender E. Robert Goss Jr., Marin said he did not see the defendant stab his mother. He also said Pacewitz had conducted himself as a “good Christian” in previous encounters.

Brown told the jury that after the assaults on Fontaine and Marin, Pacewitz went to a friend’s apartment in Fullerton where he showered and listened to music. Later that night, the prosecutor said, Pacewitz took over the baby-sitting chores for Joanne Boydston’s two children, Marcelline and 9-month-old Vasshawn Robinson, in an upstairs apartment.

The prosecutor said the attack on Marcelline took place about 3 a.m.

“He goes in there and starts stabbing Marcelline while she’s on the bed,” Brown told the jury. “He starts on the stomach and then pulls her off the bed and continues stabbing her on the floor. He stabs her 44 times. He virtually decapitates her.”

Brown said Pacewitz then fled and called Fullerton police dispatchers from a pay phone at 5:54 a.m. and reportedly confessed to the murder. Brown also said Pacewitz told the police dispatcher that he was under the influence of drugs. Police found Marcelline dead and Vasshawn unharmed.

Today, Brown said, he hopes to play a tape recording of Pacewitz’s call to the dispatcher for the jury.

Goss said that he will present videotapes during the defense presentation of statements Pacewitz made to police that are expected to provide some indication of the defendant’s state of mind shortly after his arrest.