Son Charged in Fatal Stabbing of Mother

STEVENSON RANCH — Michael Tonnessen was charged Monday with murder and attempted murder for allegedly stabbing his mother to death and knifing his Emmy-winning father, an attack witnesses said Tonnessen then celebrated by pumping his fists in the air in a gesture of triumph.

Tonnessen, 24, barricaded himself inside his parents’ house for four hours after Sunday’s attack until a Sheriff’s Department SWAT team forced him to surrender by firing teargas into the house. He is expected to be arraigned in Newhall Municipal Court today, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Ken Barshop.

Tonnessen was being held on $1 million bail at the Santa Clarita sheriff’s station, a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department spokesman said.

Tonnessen is accused of repeatedly stabbing his 51-year-old mother, Theresa Tonnessen, in a fit of rage shortly after midnight after she confronted him about his excessive drinking, Deputy Bob Killeen said. Michael’s father, Kurt Tonnessen, was stabbed in the upper body when he rushed to help his wife, Killeen said.

Kurt Tonnessen, a cameraman with NBC’s “Tonight Show” and an Emmy winner last year for technical direction, was listed in serious but stable condition Sunday, Killeen said. Monday, officials at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Santa Clarita said he had requested that no information on his condition be released.

Little is known about the events leading up to the attacks but according to Killeen, a rift had developed between Tonnessen and his parents over his drinking.

According to Los Angeles County Superior Court criminal records, Tonnessen received a 90-day jail sentence in 1993 for assault.

In two incidents in 1991, he was arrested for trespassing and for resisting a peace officer. In both cases he received probation and was ordered to seek treatment for alcohol abuse, records show. All the charges were misdemeanors.

Several neighbors reported seeing the struggle outside the Tonnessens’ home in the 25900 block of Coleridge Place and, afterward, Kurt and Theresa Tonnessen bloodied and screaming for help while their son appeared euphoric.

Neighbor Dave Deffenbaugh said that after the attack Tonnessen walked into his parents’ house “pumping his fists in the air like he had just won a prizefight.”

The incident stunned residents of Stevenson Ranch, an upper middle class area just west of the city of Santa Clarita, where children can be seen riding their bikes and skating along sidewalks unsupervised.

“We were supposed to go over there [Saturday] night and pick up tickets to ‘The Tonight Show,’ ” said Todd Walsh, who lives two houses from the Tonnessen home. “We didn’t see anything in the past that made us think they were having problems. Kurt and [Theresa] were really nice to us.”

A 33-year employee of NBC, Kurt Tonnessen was trying to land Michael a job with NBC and had brought him to the set of “The Tonight Show” several times, two of his father’s co-workers said.

Jennifer Barnett, an NBC spokeswoman, said Kurt appeared in a episode of the “Tonight Show” last week during a skit that the entire crew participated in.