Portsmouth woman admits stabbing her boyfriend to death

PORTSMOUTH — More than a year after a jury was unable to reach a verdict in her case, a Portsmouth woman pleaded guilty Tuesday to fatally stabbing her boyfriend in 2017.

Latisha Warren initially was charged with first-degree murder in the death of 40-year-old Darnell Phillips. A mistrial was declared in July last year when jurors couldn’t come to a unanimous decision. At the time, prosecutors said they planned to retry the case.

But under an agreement with prosecutors Tuesday, Warren pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter. She faces up to 10 years in prison when she’s sentenced Feb. 5 in Circuit Court.

Warren and Phillips were in an on-again, off-again relationship, according to prosecutors. On Aug. 12, 2017, she called him to pick her up in the 1500 block of Maple Ave. The two argued when Phillips and a friend arrived, and Warren poured a beer through the sunroof of Phillips' friend’s car, prosecutors said.

Phillips got out to confront his girlfriend, and she stabbed him in the shoulder, which severed an artery and punctured a lung, according to prosecutors.

[ Previous coverage: "I heard a splash, not knowing it was blood": Man describes the night his friend died ]

At trial last year, Warren testified that Phillips grabbed her throat and started to choke her. She said she carried a knife for safety and stabbed him once in the shoulder because she was afraid he was going to kill her.

A Portsmouth police officer who lived nearby testified her home-security system caught video of the altercation, which showed Phillips step and reach toward Warren before the stabbing. The officer is a distant relative of Warren by marriage.

Warren’s attorney hoped the video would help his case. But he said he was unable to get anyone, even a tech expert, to open a video file the officer had put on a thumb drive, so jurors could not watch it.

Margaret Matray, 757-222-5216, margaret.matray@pilotonline.com