BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) - A 22-year-old Billings woman has denied charges that she stabbed another woman to death during an argument outside a bar.
The Billings Gazette reports (https://bit.ly/1o6IF2f ) Jamie Jo Broken Rope pleaded not guilty Thursday to deliberate homicide for the Sept. 5 death of 29-year-old Ruthie Martinez. She also denied an evidence tampering charge for allegedly having a friend dispose of the knife in a storm drain. Police recovered the knife.
Assistant public defender Roberta Drew told District Judge Michael Moses that Broken Rope would wait to argue for a reduction in her $350,000 bail and that she planned to hire a private attorney.
Charging documents say Martinez was stabbed five times, with the fatal injury to her neck.
A trial date has not been set.
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