Taos, NM: Questa woman pleads guilty to killing husband; may serve four years

By Chandra Johnson
Monday, March 28, 2011 3:13 PM MDT
The Questa woman accused of killing her husband in 2007 pleaded guilty to a lesser charge Monday afternoon (March 28) in Taos' Eighth Judicial District Court.

Natalie Rael, 31, pleaded guilty to one count of voluntary manslaughter and three counts of tampering with evidence before Judge Joseph Caldwell. The manslaughter charge was a lesser-included charge from Rael's original charge of first-degree murder for stabbing her then husband, Dennis Rael, in the neck.

A copy of the judgment from the court says that the three recently added tampering charges revolved around Rael hiding the knives used in the incident and placing a pillow over the blood-stained couch where Dennis Rael was sleeping at the time of his stabbing.

The new charges were the result of a plea agreement struck between Santa Fe attorney David Foster and public defenders Sydney West and Darryl Bouchard. The judgment also states that Rael is to have "no contact whatsoever" with the victim's family in any way. That means that Rael will also never see her two small children by Dennis Rael again.

While Rael declined to address the court, Dennis Rael's sister and father both gave the court an idea of their anguish since Dennis Rael's death in March of 2007.

"Dennis is in a place where you cannot hurt him anymore," Dennis Rael's sister, Amanda, said. "Whatever pain you suffer, you deserve."

For an updated story and full details, see the March 31 edition of The Taos News.