Bonnie Degenstein, 27, was arraigned Saturday in Anchorage, Alaska for second-degree murder. She called police Friday night and reported she had been drinking and playing with guns with her boyfriend when she shot him in the head.
Alaska Dispatch
Twenty-seven-year-old Bonnie Degenstein made her first court appearance Saturday afternoon at the Anchorage jail, less than a day after police arrested the woman on a second-degree murder charge following a 911 call to report she had accidentally shot her boyfriend.
Police say Degenstein called Anchorage Police Department dispatch at 10:16 p.m. Friday. She said she and Ryan Tamborrino, 24, had been drinking and "playing with a guns" at a residence near midtown and that she’d accidentally shot him.
Police responded and found Degenstein sitting on a couch just inside the front door of an upstairs apartment. Tamborrino was sitting on an adjacent couch. The wounded man was slumped over, bleeding profusely from his head but still breathing, the charges say. Tamborrino was transported to a local hospital; he died later of an apparent gunshot wound to his forehead.
A downstairs neighbor who told police the victim was his friend said he went to bed early and did not hear any gunshots. He also said he wasn’t aware of Tamborrino owning firearms. The witness's roommate told police he'd seen the couple fighting two days earlier. Tamborrino was allegedly yelling at Degenstein, who was standing outside the apartment, telling her she needed to leave.
The roommate offered Degenstein a ride home, and during the drive she said she'd been arguing with her boyfriend because she found out he was dating other girls.
Degenstein's next court appearance is scheduled for Dec. 10.
Degenstein has one prior conviction, for drunk driving, received in 2012.
