Sentencing: 46 years to life for killer of young boy

Peniamina Tomasi, a 31-year-old man, was sentenced to 46 years to life in prison in the stabbing death of his girlfriend's son, Felix Sandoval, a 7-year-old Latino, and the attempted murder of the boy’s mother.

Tomasi shared a Long Beach apartment with his 27-year-old girlfriend and their combined eight children. Each had three children from previous relationships and two together. The youngest child was an infant and the oldest was 10, according to a Long Beach Police Department news release.

Prosecutors said that on Jan. 8, two of the children, his son and his girlfriend's daughter, began fighting. Although the girlfriend separated the two, they began fighting again once she left the room, according to authorities.

The feud escalated with the boy choking the girl and the woman returning to break it up. At that point, prosecutors said, Tomasi grabbed a knife from the kitchen, stabbing his girlfriend in the back and then attacking her son Felix.

When one of the children took the knife away from Tomasi and hid it, he grabbed four more knives, authorities said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Danette Gomez, of the Long Beach branch office, said that Felix was stabbed nine times; dying as a result of three wounds which went through his back and perforated his lungs. His mother suffered non-life-threatening injuries. Although Felix had not been involved in the altercation that day, prosecutors said Tomasi had encouraged fights between his son and Felix in the past.

After the incident, authorities discovered four bloodied knives, two of which were bent, and hidden throughout the apartment.

-- Sarah Ardalani