Defendant Says on Tape He Killed Fiancee to Save Her

The key witness at Timothy J. Velasco’s murder trial Tuesday was the defendant himself, describing on videotape how he stabbed and strangled his fiancee last October.

“I didn’t do it to hurt her, I did it to save her,” Velasco said on the 40-minute tape, which was played before the Ventura County Superior Court jury that will decide his fate.

Velasco, 22, of Van Nuys has been charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of Ellen Cleary, 37, in her Thousand Oaks condominium Oct. 4. Both sides agree that Velasco killed Cleary after finding her in bed with another man.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Carol J. Nelson said the killing was premeditated, a key element of first-degree murder. In her opening statement, she noted that about an hour passed between Velasco’s discovery of Cleary with the other man and the slaying.

Deputy Public Defender William McGuffey is trying to prove that the killing was voluntary manslaughter in the heat of passion. He said his client acted out of frustration over Cleary’s addiction to drugs and alcohol.

The videotaped confession was recorded without Velasco’s knowledge about 10 hours after the slaying. Velasco’s own statements appeared to undermine the heat-of-passion defense.

“I did premeditate what I did,” Velasco said on the tape. “I knew I was going to prison when I got that steak knife.”

Velasco said he had known Cleary about three years and accepted her dalliances with other men. But he said he disapproved of her relationship with Dr. Don Alan Lee, a Westlake Village cardiologist. He said Lee kept Cleary hooked on pills so he could take advantage of her sexually.

Lee declined to comment Tuesday. He is scheduled to testify today.

On the tape, Velasco said he wasn’t surprised when he found Cleary in bed with Lee. “She was starting to drink again, which meant she’d be wanting some pills,” he said. “I knew he’d be making a house call.”

So when Velasco arrived unexpectedly at Cleary’s residence, “I said, ‘No problem; I’m not mad, I’m just concerned,’ ” Velasco said on the tape. Lee quickly departed, Velasco said, and he and Cleary finished the poached salmon lunch that she had prepared for Lee.

Then they made love, he said.

“After we finished, I just looked at her. She was so pretty . . . so intelligent. I knew what was going to go down again--the drugs and the pills.” He didn’t want to see Cleary with the bruises and matted hair that followed her binges, Velasco said.

So he went to a drawer and got a steak knife. “I said, ‘Wait right there,’ as if I was going to get a surprise,” Velasco said. He said he returned with the knife, bent over Cleary as if to kiss her, and cut her on both sides of the neck, trying to find her jugular vein.

“She looked at me and said ‘Timothy,’ like why?” Velasco said on the tape. A medical examiner later testified that the cuts did not hit any major blood vessels.

The victim rose, went to the kitchen for a towel, and told him to call 911 and leave, Velasco said.

“I hesitated,” he said. “If I call 911, then she’ll be alive. Nothing will be accomplished. She’ll be just a waste of life again.”

He said that when Cleary collapsed in a hallway, “I grabbed her throat. . . . What am I going to do, let her suffer? I held on a long time. I had to turn away, I couldn’t stand the way she looked. She was not pretty anymore.”

To make sure Cleary was dead, Velasco said he put three garbage bags over her head and tied them to her throat with two more bags. Then he put her in the bathtub and filled it. “She always liked to take baths and stuff,” he said.

Velasco said he then arranged to meet a former adviser at Independence Continuation High School in Van Nuys, where he once attended.

Before leaving the condominium, Velasco wiped blood from the floor with a paper towel and put the towel in a trash can. “I didn’t want it to look yucky,” he said on the tape. Then he picked up a pack of cigarettes and left for the Van Nuys school where he turned himself in to police.

“I didn’t do it to be mean, out of anger, out of jealousy,” he said near the end of the tape. “I threw away my life so she could go to heaven. I can handle prison. I can handle anything. She couldn’t.”