Woman Who Fatally Shot Boyfriend in YouTube Stunt Gone Wrong Pleads Guilty to Manslaughter
Monalisa Perez entered her plea in Norman County District Court to second-degree manslaughter in the June 26 death of 22-year-old Pedro Ruiz III, The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.
The 20-year-old was pregnant at the time of the incident and her three-year-old with Ruiz was nearby when she shot him. She has since given birth to their second child.
Perez will be sentenced in February, but her plea agreement calls for the young mom to spend 180 days in jail, half of which to be served 30 days per year for the next three years, with Perez then to serve the balance on electronic home monitoring, according to the Tribune.
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Authorities previously said Perez and Ruiz wanted to become YouTube stars and used two cameras to capture the deadly incident.
Standing just a foot from Ruiz, police said Perez pointed a powerful handgun at his chest and fired off one round — killing him.
Perez later told law enforcement that both she and Ruiz believed the book would stop the bullet, according to the complaint which also stated Perez said Ruiz had practiced the stunt before, shooting other books that had halted the path of the bullet. She told police that he had even shown one of the books to his girlfriend, trying to convince her the stunt was safe.
