'Giving You Corona, Hope You Die': Imprisoned Female Killer Charged With Assaulting Officers

A state prisoner serving a 15-year sentence for stabbing a Camden woman to death tried to cough and spit on correctional police officers, telling them, “I’m going to give you corona and I hope you die,” authorities said.

Lettie “Shay” Carstarphen
Photo Credit: *COURTESY: NJ Department of Corrections*

Jerry DeMarco

04/21/2020 5:15 p.m.

Lettie “Shay” Carstarphen, 29, “intentionally and forcefully coughed and tried to spit at correction officers” while in a clinic at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Union Township, state Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said Tuesday.

Carstarphen stabbed and killed a 29-year-old woman during an Oct. 1, 2010 fight on Line Street in Camden, records show.

She isn’t eligible for parole on an aggravated manslaughter conviction until July 2023.

In the incident at the women’s prison earlier this month, Grewal said, authorities charged Carstarphen with making terroristic threats during an emergency, aggravated assault on an officer, spitting on an officer, risking widespread injury and endangerment.

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