Fargo woman sentenced to 7 years for killing boyfriend

FARGO, N.D. (AP) — A Fargo woman has been sentenced to serve seven years in prison for fatally stabbing her boyfriend.

Thirty-four-year-old Terin Stately had previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter in an agreement with prosecutors after she was initially charged with murder.

Stately told the judge in Cass County District Court Monday that she did not intend to kill 27-year-old Keanen Poitra at their Fargo apartment in May 2020 and that the stabbing was the result of ongoing drug use and abuse.

Stately's attorneys portrayed her as being stuck in a cycle of domestic violence.

Stately told investigators that she and Poitra had argued about him seeing other women. She said she grabbed a steak knife to keep Poitra away from her. The stab wound severed an artery, causing Poitra's death.

Prosecutor Ryan Younggren argued for a 15-year sentence, citing Stately’s criminal history.

She was sentenced to 40 months in federal prison after driving a getaway car during a 2011 robbery on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota. The robbery resulted in the deaths of two people, but she was not charged in those deaths.

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