Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

A Port Arthur woman was sentenced to 10 years deferred probation after pleading guilty to fatally shooting her boyfriend in 2021.

Brittany Nicole Tims, 28, was sentenced Wednesday in Judge John Stevens’ courtroom.

She was originally charged with murder in the death of Ronald Frazier but pleaded guilty to manslaughter, a lesser charge in a plea deal in February.

Deferred probation occurs when there is enough evidence to find a person guilty but in the interest of justice, the judge places the person on probation for up to 10 years.

If that person complete the stipulations of the probation, there will be no conviction. However if someone fails to complete the stipulations, he or she will be convicted.

The fatal shooting took place at approximately 10:19 p.m. Aug. 25, 2021, in the parking lot of Wing Stop, 8445 Memorial Blvd.

When Port Arthur Police Department officers arrived, they found Frazier dead with a single gunshot would to his upper-left chest area.

He was lying in front of a GMC Yukon that had several children and Tims inside, according to the indictment handed down in September 2021.

A .380 handgun was reportedly in the driver’s seat, and the handgun’s magazine was lying on the ground outside the driver’s door.

Tims allegedly told police Frazier had the handgun and it went off accidentally, hitting him in the chest.

A witness reportedly told police a different story, saying Frazier was standing in the doorway but not inside the vehicle on the passenger side of the car when the gun went off and that Frazier didn’t accidentally shoot himself, the document read.

Tims reportedly went to the police station to make a statement and said Frazier threw the gun on the passenger seat and she picked it up and it went off, killing the man.

The court document states the location of the entrance wound on Frazier’s chest shows the gun was pointed directly at his upper chest, which gave investigators probable cause to arrest Tims and that she intentionally and knowingly discharged the gun a Frazier.