PLANVILLE--A woman who killed her boyfriend who had threatened her and her family has been sentenced to 25 years in prison.
She was convicted of manslaughter in February, but acquitted of murder. She had faced up to 40 years.
The circumstances surrounding the case were murky from the start.
According to police, Grasso immediately called police and cooperated with the investigation in the hours and days following the shooting. The Plainville bail bondswoman had a valid firearms permit and had bought the gun legally. She was charged with first-degree manslaughter with a firearm.
Police wrote in a report that she shot him because "she saw it as her only opportunity to stop him from following through on his threats, which she believed were inevitable."
Judge Joan Alexander rejected claims Grasso-Cunha acted in self-defense.
Citing a police report, Alexander said Mendez died of a gunshot to the temple and only one gun was recovered from the car. A claim of self defense requires a belief of imminent deadly force, she said.
Two weeks after the shooting prosecutors requested that the manslaughter charge be upgraded to murder because the continuing investigation, including video that police viewed during the hour prior to the shooting, indicated that she wasn’t threatened and that she had opportunities to get away from Mendez. Grasso's attorney, Walter Hussey, countered that claim, saying things escalated quickly before the shooting.
“There was an explicit threat – 'I’m going to kill your children' – that’s what changed,” Hussey said.
Mendez had served prison time for assaulting his previous girlfriend, and had another case pending against him for similar charges. In both cases he threatened to kill those women and their children. He later violated a protective order.