Heydi Morales, a Cuban mother residing in Miami, chose to speak for the first time on Tuesday about the attack that almost cost her life: her ex-partner stabbed her 34 times in various parts of her body on the night of Sunday, June 22.
His testimony, gathered exclusively by journalist Maylin Legañoa for Telemundo 51, is a harrowing account of extreme violence and survival.
"Everything he did was to kill me."
Almost a month after the assault, Morales is still recovering physically and emotionally, but she chose to raise her voice to warn other women.
Her first words in front of the camera capture the brutality of what she experienced.
“Everything he did was to kill me, because it wasn’t just one or two; it was 34... 34 stab wounds in different parts of my body”, she said, while the physical scars from the brutal attack are still visible on her body.
According to the arrest report, the injuries were distributed as follows: 10 stab wounds in the neck, 10 in the right shoulder, seven in the forearm, and three in the chest, in addition to other injuries in various areas of the body.
The assailant is Leisnier Mauri García, 40 years old, who is facing charges of attempted murder with a deadly weapon and domestic violence, and remains incarcerated at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center (TGK) without the right to bail.
A relationship that seemed "healthy"
Morales describes how the relationship, which lasted about a year, began without any visible signs of danger: «We had a pretty healthy relationship, we got along well.»
Over time, however, control behaviors emerged that she now recognizes as warning signs she failed to interpret in time.
“Yes, he was jealous, he put a GPS on my phone, he would come to pick me up from work. When we separated, he grabbed me by the neck, almost killed me,” she recounted.
The final blow came when Morales informed García that he wanted to end the relationship.
He pulled a knife from the back seat of a vehicle and stabbed her repeatedly in the back without warning, in her own home located at 3400 Southwest 16th Terrace.
"No one here is going to listen to you."
A Ring surveillance camera captured Morales bloodied, screaming and asking for help. She recalls the moments of the attack with precision: "At first you don't feel anything, and when I see that, I start to bleed, I put this hand, which is the one that's more injured, and I start to scream for help, help, help."
While calling for help, her assailant responded with a phrase that encapsulates the coldness of the attack: “No one is going to listen to you here”.
She was urgently transferred to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where doctors had to reconstruct her arm with an extensive procedure because she couldn't move her fingers.
Her son saved her life
In the midst of horror, he recounts that it was his son who saved his life.
Morales attributes his survival directly to his son: “My boy was the one who helped me, he pressed my wounds, called the police, I started to breathe, and while breathing I said: I have to survive, I have two children.”
García was located and arrested on June 25 in Little Havana. He had lacerations on his hands at the time of his arrest.
The accused had prior criminal records in Florida, including an arrest in August 2025 in Broward County for grand theft and forgery of public records, as noted by Telemundo 51.
A call to other women
Morales explains that she decided to share her story with a clear purpose: to ensure that no other woman overlooks the signs that she missed.
“The signs cannot be ignored; one must see how the person truly is and know that if they have certain issues, some traumas, to 'act' in time,” he stated.
Regarding the sentence she hopes for her attacker, she was straightforward: "I would ask for a life sentence, which is 25 years, something like that."
Florida records over 124,000 domestic violence incidents each year, and a family member kills another every 36 hours in the state, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
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