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A Tennessee woman who killed her husband earlier this year at a Utah motel has been sentenced to prison.
Dorothy Louise Searcy, 44, was originally charged in Beaver County's 5th District Court with first-degree felony murder in the May 14 death of 45-year-old Reginald Searcy.
But the woman pleaded guilty in June to a reduced charge of third-degree felony manslaughter.
She was sentenced last week to zero to five years in prison by Judge Paul Lyman.
Dorothy Searcy initially told police that her husband accidentally fell on a steak knife she was holding in her lap, according to a probable cause statement filed in court.
But she later admitted she stabbed her husband of 10 years — who had been drinking heavily and was angry — after he pulled her hair and slapped her in the face, according to the warrant.
Reginald Stearcy bled to death after being stabbed once in the left lung.
Dorothy Searcy, her husband, her adult son, Timothy Wilson, and Wilson's girlfriend — all from out-of-state — had been traveling around the country when their car broke down, according to Beaver County Sheriff Cameron Noel.
They had been panhandling in Beaver, Noel said, and on the night of the stabbing they were staying in a local motel.