Accused Monkey Killer Jealous of Pet, Woman Testifies

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 Friday.

“I wish I got the attention the monkey got, I wish I got the love she got,” Victoria Walker, 26, quoted James Mardis as saying.

Walker, whose testimony was punctuated with tears, said that the monkey, which she named Amanda, required constant attention such as bottle feeding and diaper changes, and in return was extremely affectionate.

But Amanda was clearly afraid of Mardis, whom Walker had been dating for six weeks, Walker told a Van Nuys Superior Court jury.

“Most of the time, he (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, an unemployed truck driver, faces a maximum of nine years in prison if convicted of burglary and cruelty to an animal stemming from the bludgeoning death last year of the 7-month-old capuchin monkey from South America.

“She was like my daughter. She was my baby,” Walker said of the 2-pound, 7-ounce animal she had raised since it was 4 days old.

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

Amanda was killed on the night of March 4, 1992. Mardis later arrived at the apartment and acted strangely, which led Walker to suspect him, she testified.

“He was so nervous, he was shaking,” she said. “He was acting really weird. . . . I felt something was not right.”

Other witnesses offered damaging evidence against Mardis as the trial began Friday.

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

Suzanne Miginosi, a neighbor, said she saw Mardis jump over a small retaining wall near Walker’s apartment the night the monkey died.

Miginosi also said she heard “a monkey scream” while Mardis was in the residence.

“It was a scary scream,” Miginosi testified. “I just knew the monkey was dead.”

According to the testimony of a man who knew both Mardis and Walker, Mardis admitted being scratched and bitten by Amanda while he was with the animal the night it died.

Martin Schmitt Jr. testified that he ran into Mardis in a bar a day or two after the incident. Mardis’ hand was bandaged, and after some coaxing, he unwrapped the gauze to reveal “closely spaced puncture marks,” Schmitt said.

Mardis “admitted he had received them from Amanda,” Schmitt testified.

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

The trial will resume Tuesday, when prosecutors will call a veterinarian as their final witness.

The specialist is expected to testify that the monkey died from blunt-force trauma.