YouTube star Monalisa Perez jailed for shooting boyfriend dead while filming stunt they hoped would go viral

A young YouTube star has been jailed for shooting boyfriend dead in a stunt that went horrifyingly wrong.

Monalisa Perez, then 19 and pregnant, believed Pedro Ruiz, 22, would be shielded by a thick book as she took aim from close range in front of onlookers.

But the stunt went horribly wrong and the bullet went straight through the 1.5-inch book and into Ruiz’s chest, fatally wounding him.

Mum-of-two Perez, now 20, later pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter.

During a court hearing in Minnesota on Wednesday, judge Jeffrey Remick said Perez would serve her time in 10-day increments over three years in accordance with the plea agreement recommendations.

Perez is also banned for life from owning firearms and will be on probation for 10 years.

She also agreed not to seek any financial gain from the case.

Perez and Ruiz wanted to become famous and showcase their pranks on a YouTube channel.

Perez tweeted a few hours before the shooting: “Me and Pedro are probably going to shoot one of the most dangerous videos ever. HIS idea not MINE.”

Perez shot her boyfriend with a Desert Eagle pistole, described as “one of the world’s most powerful semiautomatic handguns” on a retailer website.

County Attorney James Brue said the book Ruiz was holding up was a hardcover encyclopedia.

An aunt of Ruiz told local news station WDAY-TV her nephew had told her about the stunt and it happened in front of their three-year-old girl.

She said: “He had told me about that idea, and I said, ‘Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Why are you going to use a gun? Why?’”

An hour before the fatal stunt, Perez wrote on Facebook: “We are in the process of making Pedro a YouTube channel oh man is it going to be sweet! LOL.”

She added: “All the crazy stuff will [be] on his channel and mine. will be our family life!!!”

A recent stunt titled ‘Doing Scary Stunts at the Fair, Part I’ was posted on YouTube the day before the shooting and shows the couple attending a fair last Thursday.

Perez told a sheriff’s deputy that it was Ruiz who had been pushing his idea for the video, which was recorded by one camera on the back of a parked vehicle and another on a ladder, according to the newspaper.

He had shown Perez another book he had shot and the bullet did not go all the way through.

Another aunt of Ruiz’s, Lisa Primeau, told a local news station her nephew was “a daredevil”.

She said: “We called him our little daredevil.

Ms Primeau said Ruiz was always chasing a thrill, “putting a dangerous twist on everything he did”.

She added: “It’s a tragic incident. What she did… she has to live with that.

“It’s the worst punishment she can get. She is pregnant with their second kid. It’s just heartbreaking.”