Woman Pleads Guilty To Stabbing Mother’s Fiancee

A woman who fatally stabbed her mother’s 71-year-old fiance pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter today and was immediately sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Michelle Yvette Booty, 33, was charged with murder for stabbing Jeff Berry on Feb. 1, 2011, in the driveway of Berry’s home on West Sunview Avenue in Palm Springs. In exchange for Booty’s manslaughter plea, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Victoria E. Cameron dismissed the murder charge, according to court records.

Family members have said that Booty was in a mental institution a short time before the killing. Berry was attacked when he returned from dinner with Booty’s mother, to whom he had proposed marriage in December 2010. A motive was not disclosed.

In August, Cameron found Booty mentally competent to stand trial and restarted criminal proceedings after she had previously been found incompetent, according to court records.

Booty, who was pregnant at the time she was arrested, agreed to take anti-psychotic medication after she gave birth, court records indicated.