A Florida woman allegedly tried to kill her husband after he received a postcard from an ex-girlfriend whom he dated 60 years ago.
Bertha Yalter, 71, has been charged with one count of second degree attempted murder after she allegedly tried to smother her husband after a dispute regarding mail sent by her husband’s ex partner. Yalter has also been charged with aggravated battery on a person who is 65 or older and tampering with a witness or victim, according to Law & Crime.
North Miami Beach police responded to call from a home in the Eastern Shores neighborhood of North Miami Beach after reports of a domestic incident at around 3:40 p.m. on Sunday.
According to an arrest report seen by Law & Crime, police officers found the victim in an “extremely fragile” condition with “several serious bruises and open lacerations” and “open bite marks that were bleeding.” He was taken to the hospital by police. Newsweek has contacted North Miami Beach Police for a copy of the arrest warrant via email.
The victim said his wife had attacked him after he received mail from a love interest he had in the 1960s, according to the police.
Miami-Dade County Jail
Police have said some of the attack was captured on a phone camera, although it is not clear at this stage whether it was filmed by the wife or the victim. Yalter said she was responsible for the attack, according to a police report seen by WTVT.
The couple have been married for more than 50 years. Police have only identified the husband in the arrest report by the initials MY.
Attorneys for Yalter have accused the police of overcharging in relation to the incident.
“Here’s the bottom line: This is a couple who has been married for 51 years,” a criminal defense lawyer from Jeffrey S. Weiner attorneys told Law & Crime. “The police overcharged this case in the extreme. Our client’s husband said he is perfectly fine. That he regrets the argument. And that he regrets what happened.”
“I am very confident that we’re going to get this case resolved quickly and favorably,” he continued.
A public defender who was initially assigned to the case before being replaced by private counsel argued that the charges against Yalter be downgraded to domestic battery. However, prosecutors said that smothering the husband amounts to attempted murder, which Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Ellen Sue Venzer agreed with.
The state’s attorney said: “I think she also admitted to urinating on him. So, I think if you look at the totality of the circumstances, this appears to be more than a domestic battery by strangulation.”
Yalter has been remanded in pretrial detention pending a final bond hearing, which has been set for Thursday.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.