FORT MYERS, Fla. — The Cape Coral woman investigators said stabbed her mother to death pleaded no contest to manslaughter in a Lee County courtroom Friday.
Mariya Kelly was subsequently sentenced to 15 years in prison by a judge, bypassing a jury trial.
Kelly's mother, Melissa West, was reportedly stabbed in the lungs in a June 17, 2020 incident, and later died at a local hospital.
Before her change of plea, Kelly had claimed the stabbing was in self-defense.
"I have already asked her to not act like that in front of my daughter and not to hit me like that,” Kelly had previously said.
