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A US mother has been jailed for six months for shooting dead her boyfriend in a botched YouTube stunt they hoped would go viral.

Monalisa Perez, 20, fired a gun at Pedro Ruiz, 22, from a foot away, with both believing the hard-back encyclopaedia held to his chest would shield him.

But Ruiz was fatally wounded by the bullet last June. The couple’s three-year-old child and almost 30 other people were watching at the time.

On Wednesday, a Minnesota judge formally sentenced Perez to 180 days behind bars. He said she could serve her time in 10-day increments over the next three years as set out in the plea agreement.

Perez was also been banned from owning firearms for life and placed on probation for ten years.

In a chilling tweet sent hours before the fatal shot, Perez told her followers that she and Ruiz were going to "shoot one of the most dangerous videos ever".

The couple regularly posted videos of much safer pranks to a YouTube channel in a bid to achieve internet fame.

Perez told investigators Ruiz had convinced her to participate by showing her other books he had shot where the bullet did not go through to the other side.

They used a GoPro camera to record the video in which Perez aimed a Desert Eagle .50 calibre at the book before pulling the trigger.

Perez called 911 to report that she had accidentally shot her boyfriend.

She was pregnant with their second child at the time of the shooting.