Woman speaks out after surviving brutal stabbing by estranged husband
PACIFICA, Calif. - Nina Mongiovi says she shouldn't be alive right now.
The 34-year-old woman says she's only here because of the help of a man who died protecting her at her Pacifica home.
"He died protecting me and protecting my children," Mongiovi says about her boyfriend.
On Dec. 21, her 29-year-old boyfriend, Ezra Pouch, was staying at her house on Naoimi Lane because of recent threats and violence by Mongiovi's estranged husband, Jason Gillenwater, a Colma firefighter.
Gillenwater, 46, had been suspended from work because of domestic violence allegations and a restraining order that Mongiovi had filed that week.
Mongiovi says she and Pouch were on high alert knowing that Gillenwater was likely to return anyway.
"The day before he had broken in to try to confront me and Ezra was there," she said.
On the morning of the stabbing, Nina says she was getting her daughters ready for school when Gillenwater broke in through an upstairs window after climbing on the roof.
"I screamed for Ezra and ran down my stairs and into my driveway thinking if I was outside and made enough noise that he wouldn't attack me," she said. "But I was wrong and he held the knife to my neck and Ezra ran outside with the baseball bat."
Gillenwater stabbed Mongiovi 15 times with a large knife, she said.
Pouch got Gillenwater's attention away from her and that's when the deadly confrontation ensued.
"Unfortunately, at one point, Jason and Ezra were in a face-off, and Jason did one jab that proved to be fatal," Mongiovi said. "What I am angry about is his last moments on this earth were riddled with fear, and that's upsetting."
Meanwhile, Mongiovi was losing blood quickly. She ran in the house and called 911.
"There was a moment where I wanted to close my eyes. I wanted to close my eyes and I wanted to lay down," she said. "I felt weak, but I knew if I did that I was going to die."
First responders arrived, but could not save her boyfriend.
Police ID suspect in domestic stabbing, shot himself after getting gun illegally
Jason Gillenwater, a 46-year-old firefighter paramedic with the Colma Fire Suppression District, has died by suicide after being accused of stabbing a man and a woman at a home on Naomi Avenue in Pacifica Thursday morning.
The neighborhood was locked down until police determined that her husband had jumped into his pickup truck and driven out of Pacifica. Gillenwater shot himself later that day in Ukiah after police pulled him over, authorities said.
Mongiovi is speaking publicly to ask women to get out of violent situations like the one that almost took her life, she said. She endured a toxic and violent marriage for too long and now wishes she had left earlier.
"Leave, even if you have to go to a shelter. Even if you don't have money, there are resources and get out because I'm an average person. I go to work. I come home. I like gardening," Mongiovi said. "I'm a simple person and if that happened to me, it can happen to other people."
She is alive today because of the help of her "angel," she said.
Mongiovi says she plans to live again in her home in that quiet neighborhood on that quiet street. She wants to make new memories in that house and will honor Pouch's memory by going on with her life and raising her two daughters.
"Ezra, I believe, he came into my life to free me because I'm free now," Mongiovi said, "because Jason ended up taking his own life and I don't ever have to worry about him ever hurting me again."
Do you need help due to domestic violence? You can find domestic violence organizations in your area that offer support by checking out the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence.