Czarina Tumaliuan had done everything she could to protect herself and her children from violence.
She installed cameras at the front and back of her property, had a court order granting her protection from her estranged husband, and repeatedly reported breaches of the order to police.
But on the morning on March 27, 2025, after dropping her children off at school, Czarina found Jessie James Tumaliuan, 42, had again shown up and had been laying in wait at her Werribee home for her to return alone.
“She can be heard screaming for around seven seconds before she falls silent. A post-mortem shows she was stabbed eight times,” Justice Amanda Fox said in sentencing Tumaliuan on Tuesday.
“On the right side of her neck, you inflicted so much force you severed a major artery and jugular vein, which likely caused her death.”
The Supreme Court heard Tumaliuan met and married his wife in the Philippines before his career as a marine engineer brought them to Australia, and later Melbourne, in 2015.
When the relationship deteriorated in 2017, Fox said court orders were made to protect Czarina from violence.
In the years that followed though, the court heard Tumaliuan repeatedly breached the orders.
He was placed on a bond without conviction for assaulting his estranged wife in 2018, before things between the two worsened in 2022 when he dislocated her shoulder and fractured her cheek bone, and was banned from contacting her for five years.
But throughout 2024 and 2025, Fox said the killer repeatedly breached the protection orders and was jailed on various occasions for doing so, including threatening to kill the victim and assaulting her.
His final term of imprisonment saw Tumaliuan jailed for 180 days, with release in January 2025. Within a month, Justice Fox said he attended his estranged wife’s home with police called, for which he was charged and bailed.
“You were on that bail at the time you murdered Czarina,” Fox said.
CCTV showed the victim walking her youngest children to school near their home on March 27, 2025, while Tumaliuan drove past, parked down the road and waited.
When Czarina returned, Tumaliuan could be seen forcing his way inside, with CCTV capturing the sounds of screaming and yelling.
“You complain too much, where is your payment, where is your payment to me,” he said to the victim.
“Four times, five times you sent me to jail. You child of a bitch … Your life will end.”
The victim attempted to call Triple Zero but when the call was disconnected, she ran into the property’s rear courtyard and could be heard screaming for help as Tumaliuan followed her carrying two large kitchen knives.
After killing her, the court heard Tumaliuan was seen on CCTV covered in blood and calling police to tell them someone was dead. He was then seen dragging the victim’s body to the back door.
“You sat down next to her body and waited for the police to arrive,” Fox said.
Tumaliuan later told officers it was the police’s and his ex’s fault that she was dead, saying, “I’m the one who brought them here for a better life, what did your system do?”
The pair’s children have since relocated overseas to live with family.
Czarina’s eldest son described his mother as a “supermum” who did everything for them, while their father stood on the sidelines.
“Her absence will echo through the rest of our lives,” he told the court earlier.
Justice Fox found Tumaliuan was motivated by grievances over finances and a contempt for police and the court system, angry that his former partner was successfully living without him.
“Czarina was in her own home where she was entitled to feel safe. She was unarmed, defenseless and terrified. She had tried to protect herself from you. But you blatantly ignored that order and brutally killed her as she attempted to run from you,” Fox said.
“This is yet another example of brutal and deadly violence committed by a man against his former partner because she has left him and is pursuing a life without him.
“She did her best to keep herself safe. Driven by grievances and anger you murdered her in her own home only a short distance from where your children were at school. They have been left heartbroken,” the court heard.
Tumaliuan pleaded guilty to murder and was jailed for 26 years with a non-parole period of 20 years.
After the sentence is finished, Tumaliuan will likely be deported to the Philippines.
National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).
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