FRENCH VALLEY – A Pala man accused of kidnapping, raping and fatally stabbing his fiancée in a minivan at The Promenade mall in Temecula was ordered Tuesday to stand trial for first-degree murder.

Mickey David Beauchamp Wagstaff, 25, is accused of stabbing local singer-songwriter Elizabeth Kellenbarger Amirian 39 times on Feb. 12.

Wagstaff also faces special allegations that he committed the murder during a kidnap and a rape. He faces life in prison without parole if convicted on all charges and at least one of the special allegations.

After a two-day preliminary hearing, Riverside Superior Court Judge Mark Mandio ordered Wagstaff back for arraignment Dec. 29. He has been denied bail.

Ronald Waters, an investigator with the District Attorney’s Office, testified that Wagstaff admitted stabbing Amirian and having sex with her against her will.

The couple had agreed to wait until they were married to have sex, and the 27-year-old woman was upset that Wagstaff raped her, Waters testified.

The rape allegedly occurred Feb. 10, but Wagstaff kept Amirian locked in his van over the next two days, driving around and talking to her, sometimes binding her legs, he said. Wagstaff injured himself and was hospitalized in intensive care when he was first questioned by Waters.

Wagstaff admitted tying up Amirian’s legs with a shirt, he said.

On Feb. 10, the couple returned from a trip to Palm Desert in Wagstaff’s Toyota Previa. They argued, and Wagstaff struck her, then raped her, according to Waters.

For the next two days, he Advertisement

Vallee d`Brume drove her around, refusing to let her go, prosecutors said. When a sherif’s sergeant spotted them in the van and knocked on a window, Wagstaff grabbed a knife and began stabbing Amirian, prompting the sergeant to kick in a window and subdue the defendant with a stun gun, according to testimony.

Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Chirco told the court that Wagstaff was fully aware that if he let Amirian go, he would be sent to prison for rape and kidnapping.

His actions were premeditated and brutal, Chirco said. Amirian was stabbed in her back, head and neck, according to court documents.

Defense attorney Renee Rupp said Wagstaff was distraught over the sex act and knew that Amirian had lost her trust in him. He was also upset because Amirian seemed to be dragging her feet on wedding plans.

But he didn’t rape her, she said.

"It’s not a rape if he believes that she’s consenting," Rupp said.

When sheriff’s Sgt. Keith Knotek knocked on the window of the van, Wagstaff realized he was going to prison and, without thinking, stabbed Amirian, Rupp said.

"The decision to kill is made rashly and impulsively," Rupp said, adding that Wagstaff first brandished the knife at Knotek.

Rupp asked the judge to dismiss the special circumstance allegations of murder during a kidnapping and rape, because the stabbing was not part of a continuous "transaction."

She also asked for the charge to be reduced to second-degree murder, but

that was denied by the judge.