Elba Morales was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in Suffolk Superior Court Thursday after a jury ruled that the 49-year-old Dorchester resident stabbed a woman to death with a kitchen knife during a fight nearly two years ago to the day, prosecutors say.

Morales killed 34-year-old Sasha Morris inside Morris’s boyfriend’s Fayston Street home in Dorchester in the early hours of Dec. 20, 2016, following an argument, according to a statement from Suffolk County District Attorney John Pappas’s office.

Jurors returned the verdict during their first full day of deliberations Thursday after hearing testimony for several days, officials said.

“But for the defendant’s choice to pick up a knife during an argument, Sasha Morris would be with her family right now,” Pappas said in the statement. “Our thoughts today are with them and the loved ones who still miss her.”


Evidence and testimony presented by prosecutors at trial showed the two women started arguing with one another before the altercation turned physical, according to officials. A witness separated the women, but Morales grabbed a knife and stabbed Morris twice in the torso, they said.

“Morales fled the building but was apprehended outside by Boston Police officers responding to a 911 call,” the statement said. “She was placed under arrest at the scene and, two months later, indicted for second-degree murder by the Suffolk County Grand Jury.”

Morales is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 19.