Chase Aisworth, center, stabbed his ex-wife, Samantha Ainsworth, to death, police said. (Image of Samantha Ainsworth: Facebook; screenshot of the defendant: KOCO)

A young Oklahoma girl testified against her father in a pretrial hearing on Wednesday, serving as the key witness for him allegedly stabbing her mother to death.

A judge bound the defendant, Chase Ainsworth, 35, to trial after the man’s daughter, then 7 and now 8, told the court through a video call from another courtroom that Ainsworth, looking “scary” and with a “mean face,” barged his way into the home of her mother, Samantha Ainsworth, 31, on July 29, 2023, and took the victim to the child’s bedroom, according to Oklahoma City ABC affiliate KOCO and CBS affiliate KWTV. The girl said she tried to get in, and when the door finally opened, she saw her mother murdered. The defendant slit Samantha Ainsworth’s throat, Oklahoma City police have said.

Defendant Ainsworth grabbed the mother’s phone from the girl’s hands when the daughter tried to call 911. The daughter testified that he held a knife with blood on it.

She testified that Ainsworth took her and her brother outside and that she ran to a neighbor’s home.

“My dad killed my mom,” she told the neighbors.