A 34-year-old woman has pleaded guilty to the 2018 Christmas Eve killing of a former co-worker inside a Birmingham Piggly Wiggly.

Sharonda Monique James, initially charged with murder in the Dec. 24, 2018, shooting death of 28-year-old Jerika Manuel, pleaded guilty Sept. 19 to a reduced charge of manslaughter, court records show.

Jefferson County Circuit Judge Alaric May sentenced James to 20 years in prison.

On Sept. 27, James pleaded guilty in the Bessemer Cutoff to second-degree assault for the 2018 pistol-whipping of another woman. Charges of leaving the scene of an accident kidnapping in that case were dismissed.

Jefferson County Circuit Judge David Carpenter sentenced James to 10 years in prison for the assault conviction. Both sentences will run concurrently, records show.

The Christmas Eve shooting happened inside the store at 2500 29th Ave. N.

Manuel, a mother of four, was shot to death just before noon that day. Police said the shooting happened when James entered the store and “started an altercation” with Manuel.

James fled the scene before police arrived. James was a former Piggly Wiggly employee.

James remained on the run for more than a month until U.S. Marshals took her into custody Feb. 11, 2019, in Chattanooga.

Five months before Manuel was killed, Bessemer police arrested James on their charges.

In that case, police responded to Academy Drive on an assault. Once on the scene, they actually found a traffic accident involving James and a female victim.

That investigation revealed a fight occurred between the two females, with James forcing the victim into a car. An accident occurred resulting in the victim suffering non-life-threatening injuries from being hit with a gun and James leaving the scene.

Officers quickly detained and arrested James.

In July 2010, James was arrested by Birmingham police on a capital murder charge in the shooting death of 31-year-old Melvin Bozeman, who was the father of her child. The deadly shooting happened July 16, 2010, in the 700 block of 47th Street North.

Police at the time said the shooting started with a domestic dispute inside a home there, and then the fight spilled into the street. Bozeman was shot multiple times.

The following month, the charge against James was dismissed after police deemed the shooting self-defense.

James remains in the Jefferson County Jail awaiting transfer to the Alabama Department of Corrections.