AUBURN – A woman accused of stabbing her boyfriend to death pleaded innocent Tuesday to a charge of murder.

Tarina Botelho, a 31-year-old mother of six, made a brief appearance in Androscoggin County Superior Court to enter her plea of not guilty.

Justice Ellen Gorman ordered Botelho’s bail to remain the same as it has been since her Oct. 21 arrest: $50,000 in cash, $100,000 in property or $10,000 if she is approved for a special pre-trial contract.

Botelho’s attorney, George Hess, and the state prosecutor, Assistant Attorney General Fern LaRochelle, did not argue for different bail.

Botelho is charged with murdering her boyfriend, Jamilah Shabazz, on the night of Sept. 5 in her Knox Street apartment.

According to a police statement, she initially told detectives that Shabazz slipped on a wet floor and fell on the knife that punctured his heart and killed him. But eventually she changed her story.

During an interview on Oct. 21, police said, Botelho told detectives that she was angry with Shabazz earlier in the day, so she cut up his clothes, put them in a suitcase and threw it out the window.

When Shabazz came to her apartment that night, they both started to cry and Shabazz asked her why they couldn’t make the relationship work, Botelho told detectives.

Botelho said she grabbed a knife – the same one she used to cut up his clothes – just as Shabazz opened his arms to hug her. Then, she said, she swung around and stabbed him in the chest, the police statement says.

According to police, Botelho’s six children, ages 6 to 13, were home at the time of the stabbing.

Both Shabazz and Botelho had previous criminal records, including charges of assault, criminal threatening and terrorizing. If convicted of murder, Botelho could be sentenced to life in prison.