A Florida woman is accused of trying to smother her longtime husband with a pillow his ex-fling from 60 years ago messaged him, authorities said.
Bertha Yalter, 71, was hit with an attempted murder charge over Sunday’s alleged attack inside their Miami-Dade County home, though her lawyers claimed to The Post she was “severely overcharged” and her hubby of over 50 years wants her sprung from jail.
The altercation began after the husband received an online message from an ex-girlfriend in Turkey from 60 years ago, and then replied, the woman’s lawyer Jeffrey Weiner said in an interview.
Authorities have said the message came in the form of a postcard, according to reports.
Detectives said they found the alleged victim in an “extremely fragile” state with “several serious bruises and open lacerations … as well as open bite marks that were bleeding,” WPLG reported, citing authorities.
Yalter also allegedly tried to smother him with a pillow, an arrest report cited by the station states.
Some of the alleged confrontation was captured on cell phone and Yalter allegedly admitted to the attack when she spoke to authorities, Law and Crime reported, citing police.
But Weiner, Yalter’s lawyer, claims the husband wants the case dropped and said that he was fine. He also denied that she tried to smother him with a pillow.
“They got into an argument, it got out of hand but there was absolutely no reason for her to be charged with attempted second-degree murder,” Weiner said, calling the situation “unfortunate” and “distasteful.”
A state attorney argued the attempted pillow smothering was attempted murder because “that would suffocate and kill him,” while she listed other ways she allegedly attacked him, according to footage of a hearing posted by NBC South Florida this week.
“I think she also admitted to urinating on him,” the state’s attorney said. “So, I think if you look at the totality of the circumstances, this appears to be more than a domestic battery by strangulation.”
Yalter is in custody as she awaits a bail hearing later this week.
But if she is released, she must stay away from her husband, per a court order, Weiner noted.
“This thing has been blown so out of proportion, they’re just sick about it,” Weiner said of the wife and husband. “Both of them.”