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Mayfield High star Carissa McGee sentenced to 12 years in prison
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LAS CRUCES A judge on Friday sentenced a former Mayfield High School basketball star to 12 years in prison on her no contest plea to two counts of attempted first-degree murder and other charges.
State District Judge Robert Robles sentenced Carissa McGee, 17, to 21 years behind bars, but then suspended nine years.
Under an agreement with prosecutors, McGee pleaded no contest Monday to two counts of attempted first-degree murder and one count of aggravated battery in attacks on her mother and sister on March 27, 2006.
Prosecutors said McGee, then 16, used three knives to stab her mother and sister, then tried to cover up the crime by making it look like a residential burglary gone wrong.
Her mother, Anita McGee, was stabbed 20 times and her sister, Marie McGee, was stabbed 15.
Because of her age at the time of the attack, Carissa McGee could have been sentenced as a juvenile, which would have kept her in state custody until age 21.
However, Robles ruled Wednesday that McGee would be sentenced as an adult.
His ruling, which came a day after a hearing concluded in the case, said she isn't amenable to psychiatric treatment or rehabilitation in a state juvenile facility.
On Tuesday, Dr. Artermio Brambila, who has treated McGee since last fall at a children's psychiatric hospital, testified she'd made substantial improvement but still doesn't recall much of the stabbing.
But prosecutors pressed him about conversations McGee had with two social workers while at the Dona Ana County Juvenile Detention Center in which she told them "she remembers it all."
Both her mother and sister testified during the hearing, saying the attack followed a rising series of disagreements with Carissa McGee over her relationship with an Albuquerque girl who also played high school basketball.
Marie McGee, now 18, recently completed her freshman year at the University of Arizona, where she is on the basketball team on scholarship. She has been undergoing physical therapy for her injuries.
Carissa McGee, a junior when the attack occurred, was being recruited by California and Arizona, her mother said, but wanted to attend another college to be on the same team as her girlfriend.
Anita McGee said her daughter awoke her early the morning of the assault, saying she was scared -- then attacked.
"She rolled on top of me. I couldn't stop her from stabbing me," the mother said.
She called for help from her other daughter. Marie McGee said her sister turned to attack when she arrived in the bloodstained bedroom, and grabbed her hair and tried to cut her throat when Marie tried to call 911.

