- Bertha Yalter, 71, is charged with attempted second-degree murder, aggravated battery against an elderly person and tampering with a victim
- The charges came after her husband received a postcard in the mail from a former fling he dated 60 years ago. The contents of the letter were not made public
An elderly woman has been arrested for trying to suffocate her husband of 52 years after he received a postcard from an ex-girlfriend he dated 60 years ago.
Bertha Yalter, 71, is charged with attempted second-degree murder, aggravated battery against an elderly person and tampering with a witness or victim after allegedly biting, bruising and attempting to choke her husband.
The Miami Beach woman is accused of launching the Jan. 28 attack on her husband, whom she has been married to since she was 19.
It happened after he received a postcard in the mail from a former fling he dated 60 years earlier. The contents of the letter were not made public.
Bertha Yalter, 71, is charged with attempted second-degree murder, aggravated battery against an elderly person and tampering with a witness or victim after allegedly biting, bruising and attempting to choke her husband.
Bertha (right) is pictured here with her husband Memo Yalter (left). During a hearing it was determined that he had the initials MY
Police responded to the couple’s marital home at Northeast 169th Street and 35th Avenue.
Her husband, named Memo Yalter in public records and identified at a bond hearing by the initials MY, had called 911 and said his wife had tried to kill him.
The victim was in an “extremely vulnerable” condition and had “several severe bruises and open cuts, as well as open bite wounds that were bleeding.”
He told officers that his wife Bertha attacked him after receiving a postcard from a woman he dated before marrying Bertha in the 1960s.
Bertha allegedly tried to suffocate her husband with a pillow and at one point took away his phone so that he could not call for help.
According to WTVT, Bertha admitted to the attack when interviewed by police. Portions were also recorded on a cell phone, which was viewed by responding police.
A public defender tried to get the judge to reduce the charge. But Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Ellen Sue Venzer ruled that the more serious charges remained unchanged. The defendant is pictured here during her bond hearing
Police were called to the marital home at Northeast 169th Street and 35th Avenue
During a hearing on Monday, the suspect was ordered to have no contact with the victim and remain in custody until a final hearing on February 1.
The public defender, who tried to get the judge to reduce the charges, said during the hearing, “Judge, there is nothing to indicate she was trying to kill him.”
An attorney for the state responded, “I think when you look at the totality of the circumstances, this appears to be more than domestic battery by strangulation.”
Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Ellen Sue Venzer ruled that the more serious charges remained unchanged.
Yalter remains at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.
