Prison for wife in ex-NYPD cop's killing

A school secretary who was acquitted of murder was sentenced to 5 years in prison Thursday on a weapons charge for fatally shooting her husband -- a retired police sergeant -- 11 times with his own gun in a sensational case that cast a spotlight on domestic violence.

Barbara Sheehan appeared stunned by the sentence and left the courtroom without speaking to reporters. She is free pending her appeal.

The 50-year-old mother of two had said she shot in self-defense on Feb. 18, 2008, after her husband of 24 years, retired NYPD 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 weapon charge for using the revolver.

The case became a referendum on so-called battered women's syndrome and whether a woman should be capable of getting out of a nasty relationship. The not guilty verdict on the murder charge 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.

The retired officer's sister-in-law, Linda Sheehan, said in a victim impact statement, "We are heartbroken that the jury has lost sight of the real victim."

Linda Sheehan said Barbara had never expressed remorse over killing her husband and never contacted his family to say she was sorry.

Barbara Sheehan insisted in her own brief statement that she had indeed expressed sorrow.