Jealousy Drove Man to Kill Monkey, Owner Says : Courts: Woman testifies her boyfriend was envious of the attention her pet received. Defendant faces nine years in prison if convicted of burglary and cruelty charges.

A Van Nuys man accused of killing his girlfriend’s beloved pet monkey out of jealousy often complained that the tiny creature got more attention than he did, the woman testified in court Friday.

“I wish I got the attention the monkey got, I wish I got the love she got,” Victoria Walker recalled James Mardis saying.

Walker said the monkey, named Amanda, required constant attention, such as bottle feeding and diaper changes, and was extremely affectionate.

But Amanda was clearly afraid of Mardis, Walker told a Van Nuys Superior Court jury.

“Most of the time, (Mardis) was almost obsessed with her, like he had to be holding her or feeding her or something,” she testified. “I didn’t understand her fear of him.”

Mardis, 21, faces a maximum of nine years in prison if convicted on charges of burglary and cruelty to an animal stemming from the March 4, 1992, bludgeoning death of the 7-month-old capuchin monkey imported from South America.

“She was like my daughter, she was my baby,” Walker said of the 2-pound, 7-ounce animal she had raised.

Amanda was “happy, playful, she loved people,” Walker testified. “She would run up to anybody and kiss them.”

A neighbor at the apartment complex at 5030 Woodman Ave. testified that she saw Mardis enter and leave the apartment through a sliding glass door that was later found to be damaged.

According to testimony from a man who knows Walker and Mardis, Mardis said he was being scratched and bitten by Amanda while he was with the animal that night.

Martin Schmitt Jr. testified that he ran into Mardis in a bar a day or two after the incident. One of Mardis’ hands was bandaged, Schmitt said. Mardis “admitted he had received (cuts) from Amanda,” Schmitt testified.

Mardis said he “gave her a bath (and) someone else was there at the time (who) he believed might have killed Amanda,” Schmitt testified.