Melbourne dad-of-four Jessie James Tumaliuan sentenced as court hears disturbing details

A father of four who fatally stabbed his estranged wife in the backyard of her home shortly after she had taken their children to school has been sentenced to 26 years in prison.

Jessie James Tumaliuan, 41, from Hoppers Crossing in Melbourne’s west, killed 42-year-old Czarina Gatbonton Tumaliuan at her property in March last year.

The former merchant sailor was jailed on Wednesday in the Supreme Court of Victoria, where he was handed a 26-year sentence with a non-parole period of 20 years.

He has already spent 454 days behind bars.

Tumaliuan had been due to face trial but instead pleaded guilty after accepting the judge’s indicated sentence of 26 years in prison if he admitted the murder charge.

Justice Amanda Fox denounced Tumaliuan’s actions, describing the killing as a merciless attack on his former partner, who had endured significant suffering.

“Czarina was in her own home where she was entitled to feel safe. She was unarmed, defenceless, and terrified,” Justice Fox said.

“She had tried to protect herself from you, including with a family violence intervention order, but you blatantly ignored that order and brutally killed her as she was attempting to run from you.”

The court heard on the day of the killing, Tumaliuan used a key to enter the home intending to confront his wife about money.

CCTV footage captured some of the murder, including Ms Tumaliuan’s screams as she ran into the backyard, but ten seconds later the video went quiet.

Ms Tumaliuan had lived directly across the road from a primary school, with neighbours reportedly hearing her blood-curdling screams shortly after she was seen walking her kids to school.

Officers were called to the Retford Close home, across the road from Bethany Catholic Primary School in Werribee, about 9am that day.

Justice Fox said Tumaliuan’s actions had been motivated by petty grievances. 

‘It seems you were motivated by grievances over finances, contempt for the police and the court system, and anger that she was successfully living her own life without you,’ she said.  

Ms Tumaliuan’s Facebook page described her juggling act as a mother and businesswoman, with one post declaring her a ‘working mum, businesswoman and supermum’. 

The self-described foodie and adventurer would often encourage other mothers to follow their dreams.

‘Successful mothers/women are not the ones that never struggled. They are the ones that never give up, despite the struggles,’ she posted in 2023.

She had described her children as her ‘treasure, pride, joy and inspiration’.

Her husband had studied at the Philippine Merchant Marine Academy and worked as a sailor.

His social media pages are filled with photographs of himself and Ms Tumaliuan in happier times.

Many photos show his family enjoying leisure time together at the beach and other happy events.

During a pre-sentence hearing in May, the killer’s 14-year-old son, who Daily Mail has chosen not to name, told the court what his father’s evil had taken from him.

‘Now there is a big empty space in our hearts that cannot be fixed,’ he told his father.

‘After the day she passed, it felt so unreal. We lost the most important person in our world that would care and love us.

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‘She was our role model, someone we love and could go to if we felt sad and scared, and now she’s gone and it hurts so much that she’s no longer with us.’

Appearing by videolink, the child remained composed as he spelt out to his father all the reasons why his mum was so special.

‘My mum was someone you would call a super mum,’ he said. 

Justice Fox said Ms Tumaliuan’s family had been ‘shattered and traumatised’ by the murder.

‘This is yet another example of brutal and deadly violence committed by a man against his female partner or former partner, because she has left him and is pursuing a life without him,’ she said. 

Justice Fox described the offence as a serious example of murder.

‘For the reasons I have been through in particular, the gravity of the offending and your high moral culpability, the head sentence I impose in this case will be higher than the standard sentence,’ she said. 

The court heard Tumaliuan had arrived unannounced shortly after his estranged wife returned from dropping her young twin sons at school.

He forced his way in, verbally abused her, threatened her with a belt and demanded money.

The court heard Ms Tumaliuan desperately tried to flee through the rear sliding door into the courtyard, screaming for help and attempting to hold the door shut.

But Tumaliuan overpowered her, armed himself with two large kitchen knives and chased her down.

‘You child of a bitch, you little whore,’ a triple-0 operator heard Tumaliuan say in the moments before he murdered his wife.

In a frenzied attack lasting about ten seconds and caught on CCTV, he stabbed her eight times in the neck, head, chest, abdomen and arms.

A deep stab wound to the right side of her neck severed major blood vessels, fractured ribs and injured her lung, leading to rapid death from catastrophic blood loss.

Tumaliuan then dragged her body back to the rear door, hid the knives and called triple-0. He was arrested while still sitting beside her bloody remains in the backyard.

The court heard the couple had met and married in the Philippines before migrating to Australia in 2014.

But their relationship was plagued with violence spanning years.

Ms Tumaliuan had suffered serious injuries, including a fractured cheekbone and dislocated shoulder, requiring hospital treatment.

Multiple intervention orders were issued, and Tumaliuan repeatedly breached them.

Tumaliuan’s barrister Chris Hooper said his client had no explanation for carrying out the ‘disgraceful’ attack.

Tumaliuan will likely be deported back to the Philippines upon his eventual release from jail.