Fatal Fight Began in Palm Desert, Testimony Shows

A fight between a musician -- who was fatally stabbed nearly three dozen times in Temecula -- and her alleged attacker began when the couple was driving home from a business meeting in Palm Desert, according to court testimony.

Mickey David Beauchamp Wagstaff, 27, of Pala, allegedly fatally stabbed Temecula musician Elizabeth “Bipsy” Kellenbarger Amirian in a van in Feb. 2009 in the parking garage at the Promenade mall.

The pair, who were engaged, had driven to Palm Desert the day before the killing for a business meeting at Fresh Concept, according to audio and video recordings of Wagstaff’s interrogation sessions conducted by investigators. The recordings were played for a jury Wednesday at the Southwest Justice Center in French Valley. 

They were on their way back to Temecula when their van broke down, and somehow they got into a dispute that ended with Wagstaff punching his fiancée in the head, he told investigators.

On the day of the killing, Wagstaff told investigators he asked Amirian to have sex with him, though she refused – possibly because he punched her in the head the day before, he said in the recordings.

After he raped her, a sheriff’s sergeant tapped on the van door. “My heart burned,” he said. “My heart filled with terror.”

He then grabbed a hunting knife and stabbed her more 36 times, according to prosecutor Jennifer Garcia.

During one of the sessions, an investigator asked Wagstarff what happened just before he started stabbing Amirian, and he said, “I let my friend come completely in.”

During another video recorded session, Wagstaff asked for a break from the interrogation and staring blankly at a wall.

“What are you staring at? What are you seeing?” the investigator asked him.

“I’m here,” he said quietly, his eyes gazing away from the interrogator.

He appeared to be talking to an invisible presence, said defense attorney Renee Rupp during a break from the proceedings.

“He definitely seems to be seeing something, enough for the investigator to ask what he’s looking at,” she said.

The couple was planning to get married the following March and were living in their van to save money, he said in the recordings.

Wagstaff did not understand what he was doing, Rupp told a jury on Monday. To read about the defense’s argument, .