Suspect in stabbing death of boyfriend pleads not guilty

A woman accused of fatally stabbing her live-in boyfriend pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Orange County Superior Court.

Michele Lynn Green, 50, who graduated from Laguna Beach High in 1982, was arrested in the killing Richard Begley following a domestic dispute on Feb. 21, according to Orange County Sheriff’s Department investigators.

Green is charged with one felony count of murder with a sentencing enhancement for the personal use of a knife, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office. If convicted, she faces a maximum sentence of 26 years to life in state prison. She posted $1-million bail.

Authorities found Begley, 52, a 1980 Laguna Beach High graduate, with a stab wound to his upper chest and lying in a neighbor’s yard on La Vida Drive in Laguna Niguel about 8:40 p.m. Feb. 21.

Paramedics tried to revive Begley, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Authorities said at the time that they did not know the reason for the dispute or a motive for the stabbing.

Begley’s friends described him as a fun-loving, eccentric guy quick to give bear hugs.

Green, a schoolteacher in the Santa Ana Unified School District, is on paid leave. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for June 17.