YOUNGSTOWN — A Youngstown woman who pleaded guilty to killing her boyfriend with a car will spend six to nine years behind bars.

Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge John M. Durkin imposed the sentence Monday, after a lengthy hearing, for Shanay T. Jacobs, 32, who pleaded guilty in late July to a reduced charge of voluntary manslaughter in the Oct. 15 death of Nathaniel Watson, 30.

During the hearing, Jacobs and her attorney, Walter Madison, said alcohol abuse was to blame for her behavior that night. Durkin agreed and said he was unsure why Youngstown police did not perform any field sobriety tests, which likely would have led to a charge of aggravated vehicular homicide instead of the murder charge on the original indictment.

The morning Watson was killed, he and Jacobs had stopped by her sister’s house, waking her sister up, and the two women ended up in a fight.

Assistant Prosecutor Rob Andrews said Watson died after he got in the middle of it, and Jacobs chased him down in a rage.

“The whole time, Nate was trying to get her to leave,” he said. “Nate was trying to be the peacemaker.”

During her trial, police said Jacobs first told them Watson walked in front of the car, but later admitted that she had intentionally swerved to hit him on the sidewalk.

In exchange for the guilty plea to the amended count, the state dropped charges of felonious assault, aggravated vehicular assault and domestic violence.

Andrews asked Durkin for a sentence of 11 to 16.5 years, while Madison asked for a five-year term.

Before sentencing, the court heard from Watson’s mother, Sherry Anderson, and his cousin, Karlesha Tate.

“I have never received such a gift as I did receiving Nate as my son,” Anderson said. “For 30 years, he was everything to me, and he still is.”

Anderson said she and Jacobs’ family have been close since the two began dating more than 10 years ago, and she holds no ill will against any of them.

“We are all here to love each other,” she said. “I don’t hate nobody because I don’t have that in my heart.”

Anderson said she misses her son every minute of every day, but she hopes the tragedy will bring everyone involved closer together and closer to God.

Tate echoed her sentiments, saying her cousin was more like her big brother. She said he was the joker and the one who kept everyone together.

“Nate was our glue,” she said. “Something’s missing now. I have to look at my cousin in pictures and videos, and try to remember what he would want if he was here.”

Tate said she forgives Jacobs and wants both families to heal, no matter what sentence was passed.

“Whatever God puts on your heart, I’m OK with it,” she told Durkin.

After victim impact statements concluded with Tate’s, Madison called Jacobs’ sister Drelynn Jacobs to the stand.

She testified that Jacobs had suffered countless tragedies in her life with which she had not been able to cope. She said Jacobs had been sexually abused by a relative as a child, and that one of Jacobs’ best friends was murdered in 2013 — a case tried in Durkin’s courtroom. The day of Watson’s death, he and Jacobs were out drinking all night, honoring the 10-year anniversary of that friend’s death.

More recently, another man Jacobs was close to, Drelynn’s boyfriend and Watson’s best friend, also was murdered, and a week later Jacobs’ other best friend died in a car crash.

Through it all, she never received counseling and only drank more heavily, Drelynn said.

Jacobs corroborated all of this during her own statement from the witness stand.

“I truly believe that if I hadn’t been drinking, we wouldn’t be here today,” she said.

She admitted not listening when her sister and other family members tried to talk to her about her drinking.

“I didn’t think it was a problem that could lead to something like this,” she said.

Jacobs apologized to Watson’s family and said she still loves all of them and never wanted to cause them such pain. She said she is trying to be better.

“I am done with alcohol, for the rest of my life,” she said. “I’m traumatized, and I’m devastated.”

Jacobs showed the court evidence of anger management and alcoholism recovery programs she has voluntarily completed while in the Mahoning County jail.

Durkin agreed with Madison that Jacobs appeared truly remorseful and that her untreated alcoholism and mental health problems led to the tragedy. He also agreed that she is unlikely to reoffend when she is released.

In showing leniency, Durkin said he was moved by her statements — and her history — but also by those of Watson’s family.

“It is refreshing, but all too infrequent, that I see the kind of grace I have witnessed here this morning,” he said.