PITTSFIELD, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts man scheduled to go on trial this week for killing the mother of his four children has instead pleaded guilty to first-degree murder.
Michael Boulais, 34, of Hinsdale, was sentenced Monday in Berkshire Superior Court to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the April 2018 killing of Kassedi Clark in the driveway of his home, according to The Berkshire Eagle.
Boulais changed his plea to spare Clark’s family the ordeal of sitting through a trial, according to his attorney, Marissa Elkins.
“The fact she was taken from us, not by accident, but by the hands of someone we considered family was a betrayal doubly hurtful,” Clark’s mother, Kim Forrest, said in a victim impact statement read in court.
Boulais shot Clark, 24, multiple times when she came to his home to pick up their children and an argument ensued, prosecutors said. He called 911 and waited for police.
Boulais told police he and Clark had been in a relationship for about nine years. During that time, they had numerous arguments that would sometimes become violent.
Clark was a nursing student at Berkshire Community College when she was killed, family members have said.
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