AUBURN – A mother of six accused of stabbing her boyfriend to death nearly a year ago pleaded guilty to manslaughter after the state agreed to drop a murder charge.
Tarina Botelho, 32, was sentenced to 15 years in prison, with five years suspended, followed by six years of probation, said her lawyer, George Hess of Lewiston.
Hess estimated that with the time she has already spent in jail awaiting trial, coupled with possible good-behavior time, she should serve no more than six years and four months.
Botelho was scheduled to go on trial on the murder charge next week.
If she had been found guilty, she would have faced between 25 years and life in prison.
Police say Botelho stabbed Jamilah Shabazz to death on the night of Sept. 5, 2004, in her apartment on Knox Street in Lewiston. She initially told police that Shabazz had slipped on a wet floor and fell on the knife that slashed through a heart artery. Eventually, she changed that story, telling detectives she had been angry with Shabazz earlier, cutting up his clothes and tossing them from a window.
She said that when Shabazz came to her apartment that night they both began to cry and he asked her why their relationship couldn’t work.
She said she grabbed the same knife she had used to cut up his clothes, and as Shabazz opened his arms to hug her, she plunged the weapon into his chest.
Police said Botelho’s six children, ages 6 to 13 at the time, were home when the stabbing occurred.
Both Shabazz and Botelho had criminal records, including charges of assault, criminal threatening and terrorizing, police said.
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