JESSICA E. DAVIS
City News Service
A 50-year-old man charged with second-degree murder testified today that he beat his girlfriend in “an uncontrollable, stupid rage” during an argument and didn't realize he had killed her.
Pietro Saintis is charged in the Nov. 8, 2006, slaying of 45-year-old Donna Jean Bodkin, who was found dead in her motor home near 10805 Palm Drive in Desert Hot Springs.
Saintis testified that he was arguing with Bodkin over a man who had visited her RV when she pushed and slapped him. He said they wrestled to the ground and she bit his thumb.
“I started hitting her until she released my thumb,” Saintis said, choking back tears.
He testified that he remembered Bodkin screaming for help and asking him to stop beating her.
Saintis' attorney, Jim Silva, asked his client why he didn't stop the beating.
“I was just in a rage, an uncontrollable, stupid rage,” Saintis said.
He said he did not remember strangling Bodkin, but stopped hitting her “when she became still.”
“I got up and stood over her and thought, ‘God what did I do?' I was in a panicked state,” Saintis testified.
He said he left the RV because he did not want her to wake up and start yelling at him again.
Saintis was identified as the suspect from DNA left under the victim's fingernails.
In an interview with investigators after the killing, Desert Hot Springs police noticed the defendant had visible scratch marks on his chest, back and arms that were healing. Saintis told detectives he received scratches while climbing a lemon tree.
He also reportedly told a friend the day after Bodkin's death that he believed he had killed her, according to the prosecution.
A medical examiner determined that Bodkin suffered blunt force trauma to her upper torso, neck, face and head. The cause of death was manual strangulation, according to the prosecution.
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