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A woman who fatally stabbed her boyfriend at their Otay Mesa home was sentenced Wednesday to four years in state prison.
Amanda Smith Rosales, 48, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in connection with the July 8, 2021, stabbing death of David Earl Jones, 38.
San Diego police said Rosales initially reported waking up to find Jones wounded in the home's entryway. Officers and fire personnel responded to the residence on Caminito Quixote at around 3:30 a.m., but Jones died at the scene.
Rosales was arrested about two months later and was initially charged with murder, which could have led to a 26-year-to-life prison term if convicted of all counts and allegations.
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Defense attorney Alonso Zavala-Soto said Wednesday that his client was a victim of numerous acts of domestic violence at the hands of Jones and had suffered from domestic-violence-related trauma involving past partners.
Rosales apologized in court, saying she "made a bad decision and acted out of fear," but added that she had previously sought help and protection from the police and the courts without success.
Deputy District Attorney Abigail Dillon, who called Rosales' case "extremely sad," said her history as a domestic violence victim was a factor in reaching the plea deal for voluntary manslaughter.
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However, she argued that the circumstances of the killing warranted a six-year prison term, the maximum term that Superior Court Judge Michael Popkins indicated he might impose.
The prosecutor said Jones had no defensive wounds and the two stab wounds he sustained were "clean," meaning he was likely not moving at the time they were made. She also described Rosales and Jones' relationship as "volatile," and told the court that both had been arrested on different occasions for alleged domestic violence against one another, including one arrest in 2021 where Rosales allegedly slashed Jones in the face with a knife.
Popkins said if he was looking at the specific facts of the killing on their own, he would likely impose the maximum six-year sentence. However, the judge said he could not ignore other factors in the case, such as the violence perpetrated against Rosales during her relationship with Jones.
While Popkins said the stabbing did not constitute legal self-defense, he said, "based on the victim's previous assaults on her, somewhere in her mind, she perceived this as self-defense."
