Grandmother sentenced for stabbing death
By Anne Marie Kyzer Staff Writer

A Midville grandmother will serve time in prison for stabbing a woman to death at a party earlier this year.

Helen Smith Bunyon, 53, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter before Judge J. Carlisle Overstreet in Burke County Superior Court as part of a plea agreement last Wednesday. Bunyon originally faced two charges of murder and possession of a knife during the commission of a crime in the death of 45- year-old Brenda Moody.

Judge Overstreet sentenced Bunyon to eight years in prison and 12 years of probation. She must also pay a $2,000 fine and complete drug and alcohol counseling.

Bunyon was arrested in April after she stabbed Moody in the chest and head with a steak knife during an argument at a party on Magruder Road. Officers found Bunyon, intoxicated, walking along Highway 56 with a steak knife similar to the murder weapon in her purse.

Moody's widower and daughter attended the proceedings and expressed their grief before the judge.

"I just think she needs to be taken away from her family the way my mama was taken away from us," Moody's daughter said through her tears.

The stabbing was not Bunyon's first.

According to a report filed at the Burke County Sheriff's Office, Bunyon was arrested in July 1997 for stabbing her boyfriend in the chest, but the charges were later dismissed.