A Carrollton grandmother who fatally stabbed her daughter’s husband will spend the next 5½ years in prison.

Two months after a jury found 69-year-old Theresa Knightnor guilty of manslaughter, Judge C. Peter Tench handed down a 10-year sentence, suspending four years and six months.

Prosecutors, who had originally sought a first-degree murder conviction, had pushed for the 10-year maximum at sentencing.

Just over two years ago, on Jan. 20, 2022, Isle of Wight County sheriff’s deputies found 54-year-old Maurice Doctor dead on the floor of a bedroom in the Smiths Neck Road residence he’d shared with Knightnor’s 49-year-old daughter, Charlotte, and the couple’s children. 

Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Edwards and Knightnor’s attorney, Muffed Said, each noted during the trial that an argument and physical altercation between Doctor and his 14-year-old son, Kemaun, had immediately preceded the stabbing.

Said, who’d argued Knightnor acted in defense of her grandson, referenced an alleged threat Doctor had made to kill Kemaun. Medical Examiner Dr. Wendy Gunther had testified at the trial that Doctor’s blood alcohol level had been 0.122, nearly twice the legal threshold for driving under the influence, and that he’d also been high on cocaine. Edwards, however, repeatedly referenced Knightnor’s, “Move, child!” Command to Kemaun, just before driving a knife into Doctor’s back as evidence of her intent to kill.