SALEM – A jury found the woman charged with murdering her abusive boyfriend in her Lynn apartment guilty of manslaughter Thursday afternoon in Salem Superior Court after three days of deliberations.Kathie DeFelice, 48, showed no emotion and sat very solemnly beside her attorney, Edward L. Hayden, as the foreman read the verdict.She went on trial last week for the pre-meditated first-degree killing of William H. Olsen, II, of Danvers, but the jury comprised of seven women and six men found her guilty of a lesser offense, manslaughter.Judge David A. Lowy delayed sentencing DeFelice until Monday morning at 9 a.m. at which time immediate relatives of Olsen are expected to speak in court before punishment is imposed.The definition of manslaughter is the taking of a life without malice or pre-meditation, but it is done in the heat of passion with reasonable provocation or during the commission of a battery. The punishment for manslaughter is up to 20 years in prison, but has no mandatory sentence.A conviction on first-degree murder would have put DeFelice behind bars for the rest of her life.”It was obvious the jury worked hard. It was a fair verdict,” said Hayden, adding, “Obviously we were hoping for a not guilty.”Hayden’s version of the case was that DeFelice was a battered woman and that she acted in self-defense. He further elaborated on the jury’s verdict, saying, “The jury felt there was something that happened between the two of them that evening, but Kathie’s actions were excessive.”Hayden hopes to plead for leniency and mercy for DeFelice on Monday. He noted that she has told him she wants to work with battered women both in prison and when she gets out.Olsen, 55, an exterior house painter, was found dead in DeFelice’s 27 Union St., Lynn, apartment in the early morning hours of Oct. 31, 2006 after DeFelice called authorities and reported that she had stabbed her boyfriend. Olsen had a single fatal stab wound to the heart and died in seconds. He had been deceased for about seven hours, showing signs of rigor mortis.The couple met in 1998 and had a stormy relationship. During the seven years they were together, DeFelice filed five restraining orders to keep Olsen away from her.During those times she lived in shelters, her car, with friends and family, but always went back to Olsen.She sustained a broken arm one time and lost a tooth as he battered and belittled her during their relationship, she testified.At the time of the incident she had an active restraining order against Olsen. She had a new boyfriend, but had called Olson that day several times and, for whatever reason, he went over to her apartment that October night.”She was terrified of him. Seven years of beatings and threats and control. But on Oct. 30, 2006, she did exercise good judgment. She did act in her best interest,” Hayden told jurors in his closing summation.But Assistant District Attorney Kate B. MacDougall argued that DeFelice “didn’t tell a story that made sense,” that she made up the story about being attacked by Olsen in her apartment and that she wanted to make authorities believe she was the victim and he the abuser.Deliberations in the trial were halted Wednesday for about four hours after one juror was replaced when he made attempts to discredit one of the defense’s expert witnesses. The juror was replaced with one of the two alternates, a female.Attempts to discuss the case with the jury and how they reached their decision as they left the courthouse failed. Each of the 12 members said they did not want to talk about the case.DeFelice remains held at Framingham Prison for Women pending the imposition of her punishment.