Michelle Boat after hearing she s been found guilty of Murder in the First Degree on May 11th, 2021. Photo by Court TV/Pool Reporter
Guilty in the First Degree. The verdict was given by the jury in the murder trial of 56-year-old Michelle Boat of Pella after just over 43 minutes of deliberation in Marion County District Court this afternoon at approximately 3 p.m. The charge carries a life sentence without parole. Boat killed Tracy Mondabaugh of Ottumwa on May 18th, 2020. Stay tuned to 92.1 KRLS for additional coverage.
Michelle Boat after hearing she s been found guilty of Murder in the First Degree on May 11th, 2021. Photo by Court TV/Pool Reporter
Guilty in the First Degree. The verdict was given by a jury in the murder trial of 56-year-old Michelle Boat of Pella after approximately 43 minutes of deliberation in Marion County District Court Tuesday afternoon.
The charge carries a life sentence without parole. Boat killed Tracy Mondabaugh of Ottumwa on May 18th, 2020, the woman who was dating Michelle’s estranged husband Nicholas at the time, 69 days after he left their home on Prairie Street in Pella.
Julie Kuiper was the key eyewitness of the May 18th incident, testifying that she saw a woman–later identified as Michelle Boat, outside of a parked truck with a bloody face that caused her hair to stick up.
Jealous wife is found GUILTY of first degree-murder for stabbing her estranged husband s younger girlfriend and claiming COVID lockdown made her snap
It took Iowa jury about 45 minutes to find Michelle Boat, 59, guilty of first-degree murder on Tuesday
Boat was handcuffed in courtroom and remanded into custody of sheriff pending her sentencing; conviction carries mandatory life sentence
Boat admitted to being responsible for the death of her husband s new girlfriend, Tracy Mondabough, 46, in May 2020
She argued that she was in extreme emotional distress due to the pandemic
Boat, who worked in a hospital laundry, learned her husband left her last March
Photo by Court TV (Pool Reporter)
The trial of Michelle Boat resumes in Marion County District Court Monday, with the defense scheduled to present its case that the 56-year-old Pella resident is not guilty of First Degree Murder, but instead of a lesser charge.
Boat admitted through attorneys that she was responsible for the death of Tracy Mondabaugh on May 18th, 2020, but is arguing that she did not intend to kill the girlfriend of her estranged husband Nicholas. As part of Friday’s testimony by Marion County Sheriff’s Lt. Reed Kious, Marion County Attorney Ed Bull presented a voicemail left by Michelle on her husband’s cell phone in March of 2020, directed at Tracy. Profanity from the audio has been censored:
Opening statements were given and testimony was heard from witnesses today in the trial of a Pella woman accused of killing her estranged husband’s girlfriend nearly one year ago.
Michelle Boat, 56, faces a charge of first degree murder for the death of Tracy Mondabough of Ottumwa.
Marion County Attorney Ed Bull detailed the night of May 18th, 2020, accusing Boat of following Mondabough and Nicholas Boat throughout the evening, eventually confronting and stabbing Tracy.
“Scorned. Obsessed. Seething,” were the opening words of Bull as he attempted to present Michelle as planning the killing ahead of time.
“At the conclusion of this case and based on the evidence, we will stand before you and ask that you return a verdict of finding the defendant guilty of Murder in the First Degree,” Bull stated. “The facts will support it, the law will compel it, and justice will demand it, because by then, we will have all learned that Michelle Boat was so scorned, so obsessed, and