CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - A West Virginia woman who pleaded guilty in her husband’s stabbing death has received the maximum sentence for voluntary manslaughter.
News outlets report 35-year-old Amanda Belcher was sentenced Tuesday in Kanawha County to 15 years in prison. Detectives say she stabbed 45-year-old Jimmy Belcher in the neck following an argument at a home near South Charleston in May 2018.
Prosecutors had charged Belcher with first-degree murder. She pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter the day her trial was scheduled to begin in April.
The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports Belcher said in court she wished she could take back what she did.
Kanahwa Circuit Judge Tod Kaufman gave Belcher credit for time served, which was about 15 months. She’ll be eligible for parole in about four years.
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