The New Jersey woman who pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing her twin sister during a drunken argument will serve six years in prison.
Recommended Videos
Amanda Ramirez, 27, was sentenced Thursday in Camden County Superior Court, and cried as she apologized in court for what’d she done.
“I know there’s nothing I can say to justify what I did,” Amanda said, according to NJ.com. “I just want to make it clear that I never had intentions of taking my twin sister’s life. If I could take back what I did, I would in a heartbeat.”
“Having to live with the fact that she’s no longer alive is devastating. I just want to apologize to my family for putting them through this. I hope that they can all forgive me,” Amanda added.
Ramirez, who is a mother to three children, pleaded guilty in September to the second-degree manslaughter of her twin Anna Ramirez, which was downgraded from her original charge of aggravated manslaughter.
Amanda previously told the court that on June 22, she and her sister were drinking heavily at her home in Camden when they began arguing. She said she could not remember what started the fight but that it ended with her plunging a knife into her sister's chest.
Amanda had scratches on her face, a cut on her finger and blood in her ear when police answered two 911 calls from her home. Anna was on the ground, bleeding, authorities said. She died less than an hour later at a nearby hospital, prosecutors said.
Amanda initially gave conflicting statement of what happened, police said. At first she claimed someone else attacked her sister, then later said she had acted in self-defense when her sister assaulted her.
Her family has remained supportive of her throughout the process, asking the judge in court Thursday to give her a lesser sentence. Her attorney, Jordan Zeitz, also said that the slaying was due to Amanda’s “postpartum depression.”
“She now is going to remember this for the rest of her life,” Zeitz said in court, according to the paper. “The sentence you are going to impose is going to pale in comparison to the life sentence she’s already serving.”
Amanda will have to serve five years and one month before she is eligible for parole.
RELATED STORIES
Mom of 3 Allegedly Stabbed to Death by Identical Twin Sister
Boy, 12, Arrested for Allegedly Stabbing Twin Sister to Death, Wounding Mom: Cops
'Evil Twin' Who Plotted to Kill Her 'Good' Sister in 1996 May Be Paroled
Jury Finds Fiance of Missing Mom Kelsey Berreth Guilty of Her Murder
