Gino Maraventano has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder after police said after he admitted to stabbing his wife and 27-year-old son to death in Goodyear Arizona, CBS5 reported. Maraventano called 911 on Saturday, and told dispatchers, and telling investigators that he committed the murders four days before notifying police.
He had been plotting to kill his 63-year-old wife, after she tested negative for cancer two weeks ago. He said she had gotten sick, and thought it was possible he gave her AIDS, or some other sexually transmitted disease because of his past with prostitutes. He reportedly grabbed a knife with a 14-inch blade from the kitchen, stabbing her while she was sleeping on Saturday. He then proceeded to go into his son Bryan's room, and cut his threat, according to a police report.
"It's tragic and not the man I knew. I don't think he's the man he wanted to be. Until he confessed it I didn't want to believe it. There is not one inkling of 'I saw this coming.' There is none of that with Gino," said a neighbor who named Phi told reporters.
Gino Maraventano attempted suicide, telling police he cut his wrist and taped a plastic bag around his head. He remains in jail.
Maraventano said he frequented prostitutes while working in New York and feared he might have given the virus to his wife, the statement said. The document did not say whether either Maraventano or his wife was positive for HIV.
"I killed my wife and I killed my son; I can't kill myself," Maraventano told a 911 dispatcher, according to court documents obtained by the Phoenix New Times.
Police said Maraventano told detectives he decided to kill his son, who was stabbed twice when he opened his bedroom door, because he did not know how the son would cope without his parents. Maraventano said he thought the son was mentally disabled, and because he did not have a girlfriend nor able to get a job, playing video games, he was essentially useless, the statement said.
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