A woman who stabbed her twin sister to death sobbed as she was sentenced to six years for the murder.
Amanda Ramirez, 27, admitted killing her twin, Anna, during a drunken fight outside their home in Camden, New Jersey, in June that police initially blamed on a love triangle.
However, Ramirez, told New York Superior Court, Thursday, that she has no recollection of why she did it.
‘I know there’s nothing I can say to justify what I did. I just want to make it clear that I never had intentions of taking my twin sister’s life,’ she said through tears according to NJ.com.
‘If I could take back what I did I would in a heartbeat. Having to live with the fact that she’s no longer alive is devastating.
I just want to apologize to my family for putting them through this. I hope that they all can forgive me.’
Amanda Ramirez (pictured in court in June), of New Jersey, received a six-year sentence on Thursday for fatally stabbing her identical twin sister, Anna, during a drunken street fight
Ramirez, 27, had pleaded guilty in September to manslaughter in the death of her twin, Anna (pictured). Ramirez initially denied stabbing her sister outside an apartment complex in Camden on June 22
This undated photo shows Anna and Amanda Ramirez (dressed in identical outfits) as young girls posing with their cousin
Her family appealed for a lenient sentence with sister Bianca, 16, telling Judge Edward McBride ‘You hold my sister’s life in your hands, so please be gentle’.
Another sister, Monica, 19, said the family is now caring for the twins’ children – Amanda’s two-year-old daughter and Anna’s three children.
Her attorney, Jordan Zeitz, said the killing caused by his client not dealing with postpartum depression.
Ramirez initially denied stabbing her sister outside an apartment complex in Camden on June 22.
But she later admitted to the stabbing, claiming she had acted in self-defense after her sister got a knife and came at her.
Ramirez has said the stabbing occurred after a night of heavy drinking, adding that she can’t remember why she and her sister started fighting.
The brawl ended when Ramirez stabbed her sister once in the chest.
Despite Ramirez claiming not to remember what led up to the fight, authorities had said a love triangle may have caused the deadly spat between the pair.
But twins’ other sister, Monika Medina, 19, has claimed that the twins would never ‘fight over a man’.
‘They would argue like cats and dogs, but stuck together like thieves,’ Medina, 19, told the New York Post in June.
‘Amanda and Anna’s bond was one of the tightest. Inseparable!’
‘Amanda has her own significant other. Anna had her own significant other,’ Medina said.
Police arrived at the scene at 5:40am on June 22 to find Ramirez covered in blood.
Friends and family of Ramirez sat weeping behind her throughout a hearing in June
These images were taken less than two hours before the stabbing death of Anna, and show her spending time with her twin sister, Amanda, a cousin and a friend. Anna was seen wearing her hair down, while Amanda had her hair slicked down in the front
At the time, Ramirez told officers she had no idea what had happened to Anna and claimed to have found her sister that way.
Anna lived with her boyfriend of two and a half years, Luis Rivera, while her sister had been in a relationship for a ‘couple of years,’ Medina said.
According to police, Ramirez offered police three different stories when she was interviewed at the station.
First she claimed that she found her sister injured but had no idea when, where or why the woman was stabbed and by whom.
By her third statement, she claimed they’d both been drinking at a relative’s and when they arrived back at the apartment block she punched her sister in the face, following an argument.
According to Ramirez’s account, the sisters fought until they were on their knees, where Anna then went to go and get a knife from the kitchen.
She claimed Anna came back outside, resumed the fight, where the pair struggled over control of the blade.
Ramirez claimed to have eventually disarmed her sister, and then, in an act of self-defense, plunged the knife into the left side of her chest.
Police documents show that officers observed a number of injuries on Ramirez’s body as they were interviewing her, including scratches on her face, lacerations on one finger and dried blood on her ear.
A knife was later recovered from Ramirez’s family’s apartment.
Just hours before Anna was killed, the sisters uploaded a picture to Facebook showing them both smiling, posing alongside two friends.
