Katherine German’s alleged killer and ex-boyfriend, Dionis Espinal, pleaded not guilty in a New York City court on Thursday to brutally stabbing the Bronx woman repeatedly, it was reported.
Espinal allegedly forced German, who is the mother of his one-month-old child, off the road before getting into her crashed car and stabbing her multiple times in the face and chest. He is suspected of stalking her after he spotted her leaving a motel with another man early in the morning, reported the New York Daily News.
“The defendant was observed by a witness stabbing Katherine German who had a valid order of protection,” Bronx Assistant District Attorney Kolomeyer said to Judge Verna Saunders on Thursday, according to the paper.
Later, he rammed his car into German on the New England Thruway before carrying out the stabbing. The murder took place in front of Jose Jiminez, 28, the man who was with her, officials told the paper. Police believe that Jimenez was a friend of German’s.
NBC New York reported that German had a protective order against Espinal and was saying at the motel to keep away from him.
Feranda Rivera, the mother of German, told the station that he was dangerous.
Espinal, a livery cab driver, was “jealous, very jealous,” Rivera told NBC. “All the time he was following her, watching where she was going.”
When the attack took place late at night, Espinal was working. His livery cab collided with German’s Honda Pilot.
“We are surprised, completely surprised and saddened at the same time,” Maria Martinez, a secretary at the car service company where Espinal worked, according to the New York Times. “You never know a person. You just know one part of him.”
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly elaborated further on the incident.
“He’s driving up to 90 mph. He strikes the car that she is in, in the rear. The car tumbles over and he—that is the pursuing driver—gets out of the car,” he said, reported the Wall Street Journal.
