Ex-NYC cop's wife acquitted in his killing

A school secretary was acquitted yesterday of murder but convicted of a weapon charge after shooting her husband, a former police sergeant, 11 times with his own guns in a sensational case that cast a spotlight on domestic violence.

Barbara Sheehan's supporters, many dressed in purple to express solidarity with domestic violence victims, ignored the judge's orders for silence, screaming, cheering and weeping in State Supreme Court in Queens.

Sheehan broke down in tears.

The weapon charge carries a mandatory prison sentence of 31/2 to 15 years, and Sheehan must report to prison next week. Sentencing is set for November. She had been out on $1 million bail after spending just a few months behind bars following Raymond Sheehan's shooting on Feb. 18, 2008. She did not speak to reporters.

"There's no joy today," attorney Michael Dowd said, standing outside court with Sheehan, who clutched her two grown children, and stood in front of a throng of family. "The only thing that can bring joy to this family would be to bring them back 17 years before the first blow was struck."

The 50-year-old petite mother of two had said she shot in self-defense after her husband of 24 years, retired New York Police Department Sgt. Raymond Sheehan, threatened to kill her if she didn't go with him on a Florida vacation.

After decades of marriage to a violent and abusive man, her attorney argued, she was enough of an expert on his terrifying behavior to know he was serious.

She grabbed his loaded revolver from the bedroom while he was in the bathroom shaving, a loaded Glock by his side on the vanity. She emptied the revolver, then picked up the Glock and fired six shots. Raymond Sheehan died in the bathroom.

Jurors, nine women and three men, found the wife guilty of a weapons charge for using the Glock. She was found not guilty of a second weapons charge for using the revolver.

The not guilty verdict came as a surprise. Domestic violence experts say battered women accused of killing their partners in self-defense are convicted at about the same rate as others accused of murder.

In weeping, fraught testimony, Sheehan told of her years of abuse, testifying she was too fearful and broken-down to leave him and was too scared to call for help. Her children, Jennifer, 25, and Raymond, 21, also gave emotional testimony on their home life, saying they walked on eggshells around their father, always worried about when he would crack and take out his anger on their mother.

Prosecutors painted a different picture of the family. Assistant District Attorney Deborah Pomodore, in her closing statements, said Barbara Sheehan was a manipulator and a liar, a pampered woman upset that her husband had strayed and their marriage was crumbling. She said the children's testimony was fabricated to protect their mother, and they, too, lived charmed lives.