CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SANTA ANA : Life Term Imposed for Night of Violence

A judge sentenced a 21-year-old man to 26 years to life in prison plus a separate life term for a night of violence that resulted in the stabbing death of a 3-year-old Fullerton girl, the attempted murder of his own mother and a knife assault on her boyfriend. Superior Court Judge Richard L. Weatherspoon also recommended that Michael Robert Pacewitz serve his sentence at the prison mental facility at Vacaville. Pacewitz called the police last March 3 after fatally stabbing little Marcelline Onick 44 times while she slept in the Fullerton apartment where he was baby-sitting. Prosecutors contend Pacewitz killed the little girl to get back at his mother, Elena Fontaine, who baby-sat the girl and treated her like a granddaughter. Hours earlier, Pacewitz stabbed his mother repeatedly at her Anaheim home, nearly killing her, and assaulted her boyfriend, prosecutors said.