Ferrara said that he believed both Ramsey's and Melvin's families regarded each as a victim.
SPRINGFIELD - After pleading guilty Friday to voluntary manslaughter, Rosa Ramsey was sentenced to five to seven years in prison for fatally stabbing her boyfriend in 2010 during a late-night argument.
Ramsey, 47, stabbed Corey T. Melvin, then 35, in her Robert Dyer Circle apartment on March 15 of that year. Investigators later revealed that Ramsey waited several hours to call police after stabbing him around 2:30 a.m.
When police arrived at 73 Robert Dyer Circle, they found Melvin dead on the floor with stab wounds to his head and chest, and Ramsey had several stab wounds to her legs.
Ramsey was nearly silent during her sentencing in Hampden Superior Court on Friday before Judge John S. Ferrara. A group of Melvin's family members were in the courtroom, and loudly lamented what they believed to be an insufficient sentence for what they deemed to be murder.
Ramsey's defense lawyer, Linda J. Thompson, argued for three to five years in jail, also urging Ferarra to let her client serve out her sentence at the women's county jail in Chicopee as opposed to state prison.
After spending some time considering the issue, Ferrara denied the request. Earlier in the sentencing, he said that he believed both Ramsey's and Melvin's families regarded each as a victim.
"The truth is I really can't know the truth of what happened in those early morning hours," Ferrara said. "The truth may lie at either end or somewhere in between."
Ferrara stayed Ramsey's sentence for one week, apparently to let her prepare for being transferred to state prison. She has already served 1,173 days and will get credit toward her sentence to that end.