Wife Pleads No Contest in Fatal Beating of Man
A 46-year-old Tujunga woman who authorities said repeatedly beat and harassed her frail husband admitted in court Monday that she killed him in a fit of anger. Michelle Chapman pleaded no contest in San Fernando Municipal Court to a charge of voluntary manslaughter in a domestic-violence situation in which the wife was the aggressor and the husband a passive victim, authorities said.
Chapman faces up to 11 years in prison for the June 9 beating death of her husband, Thomas Chapman, 52. Deputy Dist. Atty. William E. Holliman said he will ask for the maximum sentence. Police said Thomas Chapman apparently was beaten to death with a liquor bottle and that the couple’s bedroom was splattered with blood.
Before pleading to the lesser charge, Chapman had been facing 15 years to life on a charge of murder.
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