Jacqueline Avelino Mendes (Brockton Police and WCVB screenshot), Jennifer Landry (WCVB screenshot)
A 36-year-old woman in Massachusetts will spend at least a decade behind bars for killing a 41-year-old woman, fatally stabbing the victim in the neck during a road-rage altercation several years ago.
A Brockton District Court judge on Thursday ordered Jacqueline Avelino Mendes to serve a sentence of 10 to 12 years in a state correctional facility for the 2019 slaying of Jennifer Landry, authorities announced.
A jury last month deliberated for two days before finding Mendes guilty of one count of manslaughter and one count of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon over the violent confrontation.
According to a news release from the Office of Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz, officers with the Brockton Police Department and emergency medical personnel at about 3:45 p.m. on June 28, 2019, responded to multiple 911 calls reporting that there had been a stabbing in the vicinity of 276 Belmont Street and at the intersection of Grafton Street.
Upon arriving at the scene, first responders said they immediately located an adult female — later identified as Landry — who was said to be “bleeding profusely” after suffering what appeared to be a stab wound to the right side of her neck. The assailant — later identified as Mendes — fled the scene after stabbing Landry.
Landry was treated at the scene and then rushed via ambulance to the Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton. Due to the severity of her condition, Landry was transported via helicopter to Boston Medical Center for more specialized treatment. Unfortunately, Landry succumbed to her injury and was pronounced dead at BMC the following day.
Authorities said that about 15 minutes after they began receiving emergency calls about the stabbing, Mendes walked into the Brockton Police Department and told officers that she had just been in “an altercation with a motorist in the Belmont Street area” and that she “may have been involved in a stabbing” that took place at that location.
Mendes is said to have “stabbed Landry with a knife” and then “re-entered her vehicle and fled the scene,” according to police.
With the assistance of the Massachusetts State Police and investigators with the Plymouth DA’s office, detectives were able to determine that Landry and Mendes had been in a “traffic confrontation” that quickly escalated and became physical.
Court documents reviewed by The Brockton Enterprise said that the two women nearly got into a car collision a few minutes before the stabbing. Following the near-miss, Landry reportedly drove away and Mendes followed in her vehicle. Mendes claimed that Landry then began arbitrarily hitting the brakes in an attempt to make Mendes rear-end her.
When the women got out of their cars, both reportedly had folding knives, but it is unclear whether Landry ever opened her knife. At trial, jurors saw a 10-second video clip that showed Landry pushing Mendes against Mendes’ car just before stabbing the victim, per the Enterprise. At trial, she reportedly claimed that she was acting in self-defense when she stabbed Landry.
Prosecutors had sought a heftier sentence of 13 to 17 years for Mendes. However, her family told the Enterprise that they thought the killer should be put away for life.
“To say we received justice, it doesn’t fit,” Landry’s sister, Kristine Burke, told the newspaper over the weekend. “If it were up to our family, we would want her to spend the rest of her life in jail.”
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