Husband Kills `Gladiator' Champion

OAKLAND PARK, Fla. - A former champion of the "American Gladiators" athletic competition show was stabbed and beaten to death by her husband as their 3 1/2-year-old daughter watched, police said.

Then, after showering and calling his parents in California, Juan Minelli called 911 and said, "I just killed my wife. Send everybody," police said.

Minelli was charged with murder Tuesday and held without bond in the death of Cheryl Wilson-Minelli, 31, the 1993 grand champion of the popular syndicated TV show.

Minelli, 34, a former pro boxer, told police he became enraged Monday night when his wife had come home late. He said she had been at the home of a woman he believed was her lover.

Minelli is accused of knocking his wife to the floor, choking her and stabbing her repeatedly with kitchen knives. Police said she escaped outside, but he dragged her back into the house and beat her in the head with a steel hammer.

Wilson-Minelli met her husband in Los Angeles in 1992 while she was a contestant on "American Gladiators," in which contestants match muscle against the show's regulars on obstacle courses and other unusual forms of competition.

The couple married that November. Court records show he moved out a year later, shortly after their daughter, Brittany, was born, but apparently the couple later reconciled. Oakland Park Police show no reports of violence at the house.

James Wilson, the victim's brother, said she had recently told Minelli to get out because he was verbally abusing her, but he didn't leave.

Wilson-Minelli was an eight-time All-American hurdler and heptathlete at Louisiana State University. In 1991, she was ranked No. 2 in the United States and 10th in the world in the heptathlon and qualified for the world championship team.