An Alma woman will not be charged with murder after shooting and killing her boyfriend. Crawford County prosecutor Marc McCune says he found it was justified that Miranda Resinos shot and killed her boyfriend Kevin Gettridge.

“Today we are happy and feel the justice system worked,” says Carrie Jernigan, Resinos’ lawyer.

Residos’ defense team, Settle and Jernigan, PLLC says this was not a murder case but a fight to stay alive amid domestic violence.

“They have to make a split second decision on the night or day something happens. And while she was arrested that night, the investigation was just getting started. They conducted a very extensive and throughout the investigation,” says Jernigan.

Resinos was arrested March 1 after she says her boyfriend became belligerent and hostile towards her. According to the affidavit, she asked him to leave or she would get her gun but that did not make Gettridge back off. When she returned with the gun things escalated.

According to Resinos’ defense team, he backed her up against the bed and lunged at her, she then shot him in the chest.

“You have no duty to retreat from an attacker and that’s what this case was about,” says Jernigan.

According to state law, a person is justified to use deadly physical force if they feel like their life is in danger. A person is also not required to retreat if they are in their own home. These findings along with past incidents led to charges dropped.

“Mr. Gettridge had a history and a pattern of violence towards women and Miranda was not his first victim,” says Jernigan.

According to documents, Resinos filed a domestic violence case against Gettridge in January 2019 after he gave her a black eye, and cuts to her chin, neck, and arms.

In June 2012, Gettridge was convicted of domestic battery in the second and third degree and sentenced to probation. He was then convicted in September 2012 for domestic battery in the first degree and sentenced to six years in prison.

Now Resinos is moving on as a survivor.

“Miranda is taking it one day at a time, and she is really focusing on just taking each day as it comes,” says Jernigan.