The Dorchester woman who allegedly stabbed her boyfriend to death earlier this year told Boston Police homicide detectives that he “ran into the knife” as she held it during an argument in her apartment, a Suffolk County prosecutor said today.

CHERRY CLINTON (D.O.B. 2/28/82) was indicted last month on a single count of second-degree murder for the Feb. 25 stabbing death of 23-year-old Lancelot Reid. She had been in custody since her arrest the same day; at her Superior Court arraignment today, Clerk Magistrate Gary Wilson set her bail at $250,000, the amount recommended by Assistant District Attorney Ian Polumbaum.

Polumbaum told the court that Reid had been living at Clinton’s Franklin Field apartment but that Clinton wanted him to move out after she learned that he had a child with another woman. Neighbors reported hearing “disturbances and yelling” from the apartment in the weeks preceding Reid’s homicide, Polumbaum said.

On the day of the incident, Polumbaum said, Clinton called a friend and said that Reid wouldn’t leave. That friend told Clinton to call the police. Clinton didn’t call at the time, but later made a 911 call in which she stated that someone had been stabbed.

Police responded with emergency medical technicians to find Reid unresponsive. He was later pronounced dead of a single stab wound that penetrated about eight inches into his clothing, ribs, lung, and heart.
Clinton allegedly gave various and inconsistent statements to investigators before settling on one in which Reid “ran into the knife” she’d been holding. That account, Polumbaum said, was inconsistent with the angle of the injury, which came at a “sharp, sideways angle.”

Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley urged victims of any crime, including intimate partner violence, to call 911 in an emergency. SafeLink, a statewide domestic violence hotline, can be reached at 877-785-2020. SafeLink is answered by trained advocates 24 hours a day in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, as well as TTY at 877-521-2601. It also has the capacity to provide multilingual translation in more than 140 languages.

Catherine Yuan is the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate. Clinton was represented by attorney John Cunha. She is expected to return to court on June 16.