Stephanie Bozarth accepted a plea agreement this morning that amended a first-degree murder charge to voluntary manslaughter in the stabbing death of her neighbor, Tabitha Russell.
The maximum penalty is 10 years in prison and a fine of not more than $2,500. Bozarth is scheduled for pre-sentencing at 9 a.m. May 1 in WJCC Circuit Court. Bozarth had been scheduled to appear in WJCC Circuit Court for a jury trial at 8:30 a.m. Thursday.
In his presentation Wednesday, Commonwealth’s Attorney Nate Green outlined the series of events that led to the death of 27-year-old Russell, which began as a verbal altercation between Bozarth and Russell that culminated in a fatal stabbing the day before Hurricane Irene hit the Triangle in 2011. Green acknowledged the altercation had escalated to “mutual combat.”
A juvenile witness and a James City County police investigator testified at a preliminary hearing in November 2011, outlining a narrative that included Bozarth arguing in front of her home with Russell, who lived across the street in the Windy Hill Trailer Park on Judy Drive.
The juvenile was playing Xbox with Bozarth’s younger brother and another friend inside Bozarth’s home when they heard an argument outside. When he went outside, he said he saw Bozarth and Russell arguing and that two men were trying to intervene to stop the fight.
Bozarth eventually went inside her home after her husband, William Gray Bozarth II, pulled her away from the argument. William Bozarth was found guilty in December 2011 of malicious wounding from a fight he had with another man before the murder.
The juvenile witness said 30 to 45 seconds after Bozarth’s husband pulled her inside their house, she came back with a shiny metal object in her hand that Green suggested was the knife used to kill Russell. In court today, Green said Bozarth told Russell to “bring it on.”
The witness then said the women ran toward each other and started fighting. The witness could not clearly see what happened or make out what they were saying, but when he realized Russell was hurt, he got scared and ran away.
Russell was pronounced dead at the scene of a stab wound to the throat, according to an Aug. 27, 2011, news release from Maj. Stephen Rubino of the James City County Police Department. The fight between the two women began over a dispute with Russell’s brother, according to the release.
The investigator who testified in November 2011 said he found a flip knife on Bozarth’s porch the night of the murder.
The jury trial had been continued three times in the past before it was ultimately canceled today. The prosecution had trouble getting witnesses to come back to town to testify in a trial, necessitating at least one of the continuances.
Amber Lester Kennedy contributed to the reporting on this story.
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