HOUSTON – A Houston woman pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 22 years in prison for stabbing her boyfriend to death in the Galleria area, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced on Saturday.
Shataraca Denise Pervis pleaded guilty to killing her 34-year-old boyfriend Melvin Maxwell on Jan. 4, 2018 at a hotel in the 6200 block of Richmond Avenue.
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“Domestic violence can take many different forms, and this was a violent murder,” Ogg said. “We mourn for the victim and his family -- this murder did not have to happen.”
The two met one month before the murder. Pervis had been staying with her boyfriend at the hotel for several days, then in Jan. 2018, she stabbed him with a steak knife.
She fled from the hotel and told her friends she had killed someone, but she did not give them the details. Later that month, Maxwell’s decomposing body was found in the hotel room on a blood-soaked bed.
Police made it to the scene and also found Maxwell’s wallet, but it had been emptied.
In June 2021, Pervis was arrested for the murder. She pleaded guilty before the jury selection began for her murder trial.
Assistant District Attorney Kelly Marshall, with the DA’s Domestic Violence Division, prosecuted the case.
“This was a callous murder, and afterward she fled and she lied,” Marshall said. “Justice finally caught up with her after five years when she was confronted with the fact that a Harris County jury was going to hold her accountable for what she did.”
Pervis must serve at least half of the sentence before she can make a request for parole. She cannot appeal the conviction or the sentence.