Woman jailed for killing Irish boyfriend

A woman who fatally shot her Irish boyfriend in the US has been sentenced to a year in county jail in Florida.

Wendy Hanks, 33, shot Dubliner Darren Haverty multiple times during a violent fight in a cabin in a remote area in the central part of the state.

Mr Haverty, a 39-year-old father of an infant daughter, originally from Greenhills in Dublin, was found dead at the scene six miles from the nearest main road and more than a dozen from the closest sizeable town.

He was shot a number of times, including in the head when likely already dead.

Hanks was initially charged last August with premeditated murder and held in a cage for alleged violent offenders during her first court appearance.

But she eventually pleaded guilty to manslaughter with a firearm in a deal agreed to between the prosecution and her public defender.

Just days before Christmas last year she was sentenced to a year in the Osceola County Jail, with 24 days’ time served to be taken into account. Details of the plea deal and the sentence can be revealed publicly for the first time.

The short sentence was based on an “uncoerced plea and on the grounds that the victim was an initiator, willing participant, aggressor or provoker of the incident,” according to a memo written by a prosecutor from the Osceola County State Attorney’s office. It was handed down after an emotional victim impact statement from the dead man’s sister was delivered to the Osceola County Circuit Court in Kissimmee, Florida.

In a letter to presiding Judge Mark Blechman, Ms Haverty, who lives in Dublin, said her family’s life changed forever on August 20 last year. “Words cannot express the pain and anguish our family has endured since Darren’s murder,” Ms Haverty wrote. Hanks pleaded guilty to manslaughter, not murder.

She described the loss of a son, brother, uncle and father as “beyond words” and added that the most heartbreaking fact is “he will never see his daughter grow up”.

An internal memo — written by assistant state attorney Sarah Hatch, the prosecutor — after Hanks was sentenced on December 20, reveals details of what happened on that August night deep in the backwoods of central Florida.

The sentence was based on the fact that the couple were involved in a fight prior to the shooting.

Members of Mr Haverty’s family wanted Hanks to spend time in jail but did not specify how long, though they agreed with the plea offer of one year in jail, according to the memo.