Tampa Police have arrested a woman in connection with a fatal stabbing in North Tampa early Wednesday.
Officers responded to the 1200 block of E. Chilkoot Avenue just after 1:30 a.m. where they found a man laying on the living room floor of the residence with a stab wound to his chest.
Johnetta D. Shephard, 24, reportedly stabbed her boyfriend because she says she saw him on the front porch of the home, communicating with another girl on his phone, according to the arrest affidavit. Shephard told detectives that her boyfriend, 24-year-old Justin Lee Tyler Williams denied communicating with a female and laughed at her. Shephard then went inside and took a knife from the kitchen, went back outside, gripped the knife with her left hand, raised the knife over her shoulder and then stabbed Williams in the chest, according to detectives. She told detectives that she stabbed him in the left of center of his chest, but that she initially believed she had stabbed him in the arm.
Shephard placed the knife on the couch located on the front porch and went inside to get their four-month-old infant, according to the affidavit.
Williams was transported to a local hospital and later succumbed to his injury. Detectives spoke to Shephard, who made incriminating statements, police say. Shephard was arrested later Wednesday morning.
Shephard has been charged with second degree murder.
Tampa Police investigating a homicide on E. Chilkoot Avenue, does not appear related to any other homicide or pattern. Per @TampaPD
— HCSO (@HCSOSheriff) October 18, 2017
Although it is still early in the investigation, Tampa PD says that they do not believe this homicide is related to any other homicide investigation or pattern.
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