Danny Sherman, now 58, pled guilty to manslaughter charges related to the 2020 fatal stabbing of 57-year-old Mardiette Deboyes, according to Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz.

In court on Monday, Dec. 18, Sherman was sentenced to serve eight to 10 years in state prison for the manslaughter charge and an additional 10 years of probation for the assault and battery with a deadly weapon charge. 

Deboyes was the wife of Sherman and was assaulted in their shared Rose Pointe home in March 2020.

On March 27, 2020, Wareham police were called to a waterway by Route 6 in Wareham following reports of a distressed man, later identified as Sherman, in a canoe. Upon discovery, he was taken to Tobey Hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.

Later, first responders would arrive at the home on Woodbridge Avenue, where officers “found a 57-year-old female unresponsive,” according to the District Attorney’s Office. The woman, later identified as Deboyes, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police alleged Sherman had stabbed her and placed him under arrest later that afternoon.

According to prosecutor Shanan Buckingham, Bridgewater State Hospital petitioned for an order of incompetence in early May 2020, suggesting that Sherman was not mentally fit to stand trial. 

Defense attorney Frank Spillane explained that the Bridgewater State Hospital previously determined that Sherman was incompetent, and that the hospital would be responsible for a re-evaluation. 

According to family members of Sherman who wished to remain anonymous, Sherman suffered from some type of mental illness and had been “institutionalized” twice prior to the incident on March 27.

The relatives did not specify where Sherman was institutionalized, but suggested that he was released without receiving adequate treatment or rehabilitation, and was likely to be mentally unstable. 

They also said that Sherman and his late wife had been happily married.