Judge sentences Meceliza Lisa Perez to at least three months behind bars for stabbing boyfriend

A WOMAN found guilty of stabbing her boyfriend with a kitchen knife at an 18th birthday party has been sentenced to at least three months in jail.

The Launceston Supreme Court building.

A WOMAN found guilty of stabbing her boyfriend with a kitchen knife at an 18th birthday party has been sentenced to at least three months in jail.

Launceston Supreme Court Justice Shan Tennant today ordered Meceliza Lisa Perez, 26, to serve a 12-month prison sentence, with nine months suspended.

Justice Tennant said Perez’s 18-year-old boyfriend had been unarmed and was not threatening her when she grabbed two knives from the kitchen of a Rocherlea home and stabbed him with one of them.

“I accept that it was a momentary loss of temper on your part,’’ she said.

“But the offence was a serious one. It could have had serious consequences and you are fortunate it did not.’’

Justice Tennant said on May 9 last year the boyfriend, who had been drinking, became loud and obnoxious and the pair had been engaged in a loud argument, which made other people who were there uncomfortable, causing them to leave.

She said the man had pushed Perez down some stairs but it appeared that she did not fall.

Justice Tennant said after the stabbing the boyfriend — who had accused Perez of sleeping with a neighbour — had jumped over the back fence to fight with the neighbours.

She said police had found the boyfriend when he returned, noticed the wound and tried to help, but the man had been abusive toward “everyone he came into contact with” and had to be restrained to allow medical staff to suture the wound to his hip.

Justice Tennent said Perez’s relationship with her boyfriend who “seemed to think the trial process was a joke” was ongoing.

Originally published as Judge sentences Meceliza Lisa Perez to at least three months behind bars for stabbing boyfriend