NEW BERLIN – April Dell’olio, the woman accused of killing her boyfriend when she was just 14 years old, is being granted release from a downstate mental hospital by a judge in Suffolk County.

Dell’olio was charged with the murder of her high school boyfriend, 17-year-old David Eccleston, back in October of 1992. Dell’olio stabbed Eccleston 23 times near the New Berlin High School, but was found not responsible for the murder in court by reason of mental disease or defect.

Dell’olio was sentenced to five years of outpatient therapy in 1993.

Upon hearing of the possibility of Dell’olio’s release earlier this year, Eccleston’s family started a petition to keep her institutionalized; however the judge has ruled in favor of Dell’olio’s release.