More than 15 years after a fatal Christmas week stabbing amid domestic abuse claims, a Massachusetts woman has been granted parole.
Kimberly Savini was convicted of murder in the second degree for the death of Arnaldo Amado after a 2008 stabbing. She was sentenced in 2011 to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
On Dec. 27, 2008, Amado, 42, came home drunk and the couple got into a shoving match over Amado’s drinking, according to a police report obtained by the Boston Herald. Savini, 33, repeatedly told her boyfriend to leave. But he didn’t.
Instead, the police report states she said he came at her and she grabbed a kitchen knife from the stove and plunged it into his chest near his heart. She then called 911 and washed the blood off the knife in the kitchen sink.
The couple’s 1-year-old child was also home.
She first tried to tell police he came home with the stab wound, the Boston Herald reported. But she later confessed.
“Yes, I stabbed him, but he attacked me first,” Savini said with her hands on her head and hyperventilating.
When Savini was arrested, she had signs of abuse, her attorney, Maria Curtatone, told the newspaper.
“The bruises are visible,” she said. “The injuries are visible.”
But Assistant District Attorney Marian Ryan said Savini was the aggressor and Amado was too embarrassed to call the police.
“There was a great deal of domestic violence in the home,” Ryan said.
On Feb. 13, Savini, who is now 46, went in front of the parole board for the first time.
The board stated she had “significant mental health and medical issues.” She has maintained being sober during her time in prison and has also had intensive treatment for her mental health.
Four people attended the hearing and spoke in support of her parole. The Middlesex District Attorney’s office was against parole.
The board voted unanimously to approve parole on June 5.
She is required to continue taking her medication, will be in a long-term residential treatment program and continue to get counseling for anger management and mental health.
