50-year-old woman will spend 30 years in prison for fatally stabbing woman in Alamogordo.

An Otero County jury found Graciela Guerra guilty of first-degree murder late Friday night following a five-day trial in state District Court last week, the Daily News said.

A life sentence in New Mexico means 30 years in prison without the possibility of parole.

6:40am 6/22/09 -- Mother-in-Law Guilty of First-Degree Murder: Alamogordo woman, 50, to be sentenced today for May 2008 fatal stabbing.

It took jurors just under two hours Friday to find 50-year-old Graciela Guerra guilty of first-degree murder in the May 13, 2008 stabbing death of her daughter-in-law Brenda Guerra at an Alamogordo motel, the Alamogordo Daily News reported this weekend.

Jurors had the option of finding Graciela Guerra guilty of second-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter as well as not guilty, according to the Daily News.

Sentencing is scheduled for 9 a.m. today, the paper reported.

Brenda Guerra had traveled from San Antonio, Texas, on May 12 to attend a divorce proceeding earlier on May 13, the day she was found fatally stabbed at Alamogordo's Economy Inn, the Daily News said.

Graciela Guerra, who took the stand in her own defense at the trial, testified that her son, Christian, had returned from the divorce hearing angry that the divorce had been postponed until December 2008, the paper reported.

The defendant testified that she just wanted to talk to her daughter-in-law and never intended to hurt Brenda Guerra because she loved her, but she also said she had picked up two knives from the kitchen of her son's house before going to the motel, the Daily News said.

The woman said it was when Brenda grabbed her hair and pulled her to the floor during a confrontation at the motel room that she grabbed one of the knives from her purse and stabbed Brenda Guerra in the abdomen, according to the paper.

1:30pm 5/14/08 -- Woman Charged With Killing Daughter-in-Law: Alamogordo police found body of 27-year-old in a motel room Tuesday afternoon.

Alamogordo police have arrested 49-year-old Graciela Guerra and charged her with the murder of her 27-year-old daughter-in-law Brenda Guerra, whose body was found Tuesday afternoon in an Alamogordo motel room, the Alamogordo Daily News is reporting.

(NOTE: It was incorrectly reported a short time ago that the daughter-in-law was being charged with killing the mother-in-law, which we have since corrected.) 

When police arrived on the scene, Graciela Guerra was outside the motel room at the Economy Inn on White Sands Boulevard, wearing blood-soaked jeans and had blood on her hands and face while she was being questioned, the Daily News reported.

The younger woman was found dead of stab wounds, Alamogordo police told the Daily News.

Department of Public Safety investigators said a domestic dispute occurred at the motel following a hearing in the Otero County Courthouse where, according to court records, Brenda Guerra was to appear for a divorce hearing Tuesday, the paper said.

Graciela Guerra is being held at the Otero County Detention Center. 

6:35am -- Woman Found Dead in Alamogordo Motel: Second woman detained, man also being questioned in an apparent homicide.

A woman was found dead Tuesday afternoon in Alamogordo's Economy Inn and a woman wearing blood-soaked jeans with blood on her hands and face was taken into custody, the Alamogordo Daily News reported.

Police said they were questioning the woman as well as a man who was seen leaving the motel with two children, the Alamogordo Department of Public Safety told the Daily News.

Detective Sgt. Israel Trujillo told the paper he did not know how the woman died, but police were called to the motel around 5:50 p.m. in response to apparent shooting or stabbing.

The names of the three people involved haven't been released yet, the Daily News said.

A Phoenix man who had been staying at the motel told the Daily News that he heard arguing and the sound of something being hit from a room downstairs before police arrived and that he saw the woman who was later arrested arrive at the motel just before the argument began.

"I heard yelling, and hitting to the walls or something," Damien Flores told the Daily News.

Motel co-owner and manager Ranjit Bhakta told the paper he didn't know whether the dead woman was the same person who registered for the downstairs room on Monday.

The registration slip showed the woman who checked in on Monday was driving a black Honda with Texas license plates, the Daily News said.