DOMESTIC BATTERY – An elderly woman has been arrested for trying to smother her husband of 52 years to death after he received a postcard from an ex-girlfriend he dated six decades ago.
Bertha Yalter, 71, is charged with attempted murder in the second degree, aggravated battery against an elderly person and tampering with a witness or victim after she allegedly bit, bruised, and tried to suffocate her husband.
The Miami Beach woman is accused of launching the attack on January 28 against her husband, who she has been married to since she was 19 years old.
Details of What Happened?
It occurred after he received a postcard in the mail from a former fling he dated 60 years earlier. The contents of the letter were not made public.
Cops responded to the couple’s marital home on Northeast 169th Street and 35th Avenue.
The Husband Rang 911
Her husband, who is named Memo Yalter in public records and was identified as having the initials M.Y at a bond hearing, had called 911 saying his wife had tried to kill him.
The victim was in an ‘extremely fragile’ state and with ‘several serious bruises and open lacerations, as well as open bite marks that were bleeding.’
He told officers his wife Bertha attacked him after he received a postcard from a woman he dated before he married Bertha in the 1960s.
She Took his Phone Away
Bertha allegedly tried to smother her husband with a pillow and took his phone away at one point so he couldn’t call for help.
According to WTVT, Bertha admitted to the attack when she was interviewed by cops. Parts were also recorded on a cell phone, which responding police watched.
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Court Ruling
At a bond hearing on Monday, the defendant was ordered to have no contact with the victim and remain in custody until a final hearing on February 1.
The public defender, who was attempting to get the judge to downgrade the charges, told the bond hearing: ‘Judge, there is nothing indicating she was trying to kill him.’
An attorney for the state responded: ‘I think if you look at the totality of the circumstances, this appears to be more than a domestic battery by strangulation.’
Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Ellen Sue Venzer ruled to keep the more serious charges as they are.
Yalter remains in Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.
