Westchester woman Jonitha Alston has sentence reduced under Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- There has been a measure of judicial mercy for a New Rochelle woman who stabbed and killed her boyfriend.

She's the first in Westchester County to have her prison sentence reduced under a state law that recognizes the trauma victims of domestic violence can suffer.

As CBS2's Tony Aiello reported Tuesday, Jonitha Alston fatally stabbed her boyfriend, Dennis Graham, in a New Rochelle multifamily home almost six years ago.

Prosecutors learned Graham was controlling and physically abusive, so the murder charge was reduced to manslaughter and Alston accepted a 12-year sentence.

She will now leave prison five years early after a resentencing under New York's Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act.

"When someone has experienced significant domestic violence, that trauma has a significant effect on their decision making, on the course of their lives," said Ross Kramer of the Sanctuary For Families.

Kramer, an advocate, says the law was passed in 2019 and is being widely used just now, post-pandemic.

"The law specifically allows us now to have motions to reduce a sentence that has already been established and allow a judge to actually grant that reduction," said Westchester DA Mimi Rocah.

Rocah agreed to support the sentence reduction after an outside expert fully examined the history of domestic abuse that preceded Alston killing her boyfriend.

"It contributed significantly to the commission of the crime. That's one of the key parts of the law. This isn't just haphazard, you need specific findings about that," Rocah said.

"So this is an opportunity for those people to get back into court, those survivors, and have a court take a second look with a modern understanding of domestic violence and hopefully adjust their sentences to be more compassionate and more appropriate given the full holistic view of the person," Kramer said.

The DA expects more people in prison will apply for a reduced sentence under this law. She says each case will be carefully reviewed to ensure domestic violence truly played a role, influencing the crime.