By Dave Bohl
May 10, 2021
(Knoxville, Iowa) A Pella woman accused of murder is admitting to stabbing her estranged husband s girlfriend.
Michelle Boat took the stand in court today, as she faces first-degree murder charges in the 2019 stabbing of Tracy Mondabaugh. Boat admitted to the stabbing, but said it happened in the heat of the moment.
Boat said she had followed Mondabaugh to find out where her husband, Nick Boat, was staying and planned to beg him to come home.
The prosecution asked her about previous threats she d made against Mondabaugh, which she said were to scare Mondabaugh away from her husband.
Photo by Court TV (Pool Reporter)
The trial of Michelle Boat resumes in Marion County District Court Monday, with the defense scheduled to present its case that the 56-year-old Pella resident is not guilty of First Degree Murder, but instead of a lesser charge.
Boat admitted through attorneys that she was responsible for the death of Tracy Mondabaugh on May 18th, 2020, but is arguing that she did not intend to kill the girlfriend of her estranged husband Nicholas. As part of Friday’s testimony by Marion County Sheriff’s Lt. Reed Kious, Marion County Attorney Ed Bull presented a voicemail left by Michelle on her husband’s cell phone in March of 2020, directed at Tracy. Profanity from the audio has been censored:
The prosecution has rested its case after a motion for acquittal was denied in the trial of Michelle Boat on day two of witness testimony.
Since Thursday morning, the Marion County Attorney’s Office examined several witnesses, including Michelle’s estranged husband Nicholas, eyewitnesses from the neighborhood, investigators from the Pella Police Department, Marion County Sheriff’s Office, and Iowa Department of Public Safety, forensic experts from the State Crime Lab and the State Medical Examiner’s Office.
Before denying the motion for acquittal, Judge Patrick Greenwood laid out the facts presented by the prosecution, which included Michelle’s acknowledgement that she killed Tracy Mondabaugh on the night of May 18th, 2020.
Opening statements were given and testimony was heard from witnesses today in the trial of a Pella woman accused of killing her estranged husband’s girlfriend nearly one year ago.
Michelle Boat, 56, faces a charge of first degree murder for the death of Tracy Mondabough of Ottumwa.
Marion County Attorney Ed Bull detailed the night of May 18th, 2020, accusing Boat of following Mondabough and Nicholas Boat throughout the evening, eventually confronting and stabbing Tracy.
“Scorned. Obsessed. Seething,” were the opening words of Bull as he attempted to present Michelle as planning the killing ahead of time.
“At the conclusion of this case and based on the evidence, we will stand before you and ask that you return a verdict of finding the defendant guilty of Murder in the First Degree,” Bull stated. “The facts will support it, the law will compel it, and justice will demand it, because by then, we will have all learned that Michelle Boat was so scorned, so obsessed, and