Victim's mom: Daughter's boyfriend held her captive
Sharon Dorsett, the mother of Jo'Anna Bird, leaves the courtroom in tears after she gives testimony against her alleged killer, Leonardo Valdez-Cruz. (April 16, 2010) Credit: Howard Schnapp
In the minutes before Jo'Anna Bird was killed last year, she called her mother, hysterical, saying that her obsessed boyfriend was holding her captive, Bird's mother testified Friday morning in the man's murder trial.
Sharon Dorsett said she could hear Leonardo Valdez-Cruz, who went by the nickname Pito, threatening her daughter in the background.
"I heard Pito say, 'You'll be dead before your mama gets here,' " Dorsett said before breaking down on the stand.
Valdez-Cruz, 24, of Westbury, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder charges.
Prosecutors say he tormented Bird, 24, of Westbury for months before he finally broke into her home and tortured her to death March 19, 2009.
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