Woman gets prison in boyfriend’s slaying

AUBURN – A Lewiston woman was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter in the fatal stabbing of her boyfriend.

In a plea bargain with the state, Tarina Botelho entered the guilty plea in Superior Court. She was scheduled to go on trial next week for murder, but the state dropped that charge in exchange for her plea.

Botelho, 32, a mother of six children, stabbed Jamilah Shabazz to death last Sept. 5 in her Lewiston apartment. Botelho initially told police Shabazz slipped and fell on the knife but later confessed she stabbed him in the chest.

Both Botelho and Shabazz had criminal records, including assault, criminal threatening and terrorizing.

Botelho was sentenced to 15 years, with five years suspended. With time served and good behavior, she could serve a little more than six years, said her attorney, George Hess.