Trial underway in wife's 1979 slaying in NY cemetery

BUFFALO, N.Y. - A 60-year-old western New York man is on trial - charged with stabbing his estranged wife to death in a cemetery over 35 years ago.

The trial of Michael Rodriguez, of Buffalo, began Friday in Erie County Court. He's charged with second-degree murder in the death of Patricia Rodriguez, the mother of his two children.

She was found dead in a Lackawana cemetery on Good Friday in April 1979 at the age of 21. Police say she had been stabbed more than 100 times.

Michael Rodriguez was indicted last November after state police reopened the unsolved case in 2009 at the request of Lackawana's police chief. Investigators used scientific technology that didn't exist at the time of the slaying to re-examine forensic evidence found at the cemetery.

On Monday, Michael Rodriguez's ex-girlfriend, whom he was living with at the time of the murder, testified that Rodriguez admitted to her that he killed Patricia, reports CBS affiliate WIVB.

The woman, who was 19 and pregnant with Rodriguez's child at the time, told the court she even helped clean his bloody jacket and said she has been living a nightmare for 35 years. She said she never went to police because Rodriguez threatened to kill her.