Trial in boyfriend stabbing death could start in March

The jury trial for a woman with Laguna Beach roots accused of killing her live-in boyfriend earlier this year could begin by late March.

A pretrial hearing is scheduled Jan. 26 for Michele Lynn Green, a 51-year-old Laguna Niguel resident whom the Orange County district attorney’s office says killed Richard Begley on Feb. 21.

Green stood alongside her attorney Ronald MacGregor inside a Santa Ana courtroom Tuesday as judge Richard King said she has a right to a trial within 60 days from Jan. 26, though no specific date was set.

Green, who graduated from Laguna Beach High in 1982, pleaded not guilty in March to one felony count of murder and denied a sentencing enhancement for use of a deadly weapon. The D.A.’s office claims Green used a knife to kill Begley, 52, a 1980 Laguna Beach High graduate.

Orange County Sheriff’s Department investigators found Begley with a stab wound to his upper chest and lying in a neighbor’s yard on La Vida Drive in Laguna Niguel about 8:40 p.m. Feb. 21.

Paramedics tried to revive Begley, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Authorities said at the time that they did not know the reason for the dispute or a motive for the stabbing.

Begley’s friends described him as a fun-loving, eccentric guy quick to give bear hugs.

“[Begley] and [Green] are well-loved,” MacGregor said outside the courtroom. “There is no winner in this tragedy.”

MacGregor did not say whether Green was still on paid leave from her job as a schoolteacher in the Santa Ana Unified School District.

If convicted, Green faces a maximum sentence of 26 years to life in state prison.