Oak Lawn, Illinois

From Tinley Park’s Daily Southown of January 30, 2007

Woman released; no charges in OL shooting

An Oak Lawn woman who shot and killed her estranged husband was arguing with him about who should pay for her daughter’s braces moments before she opened fire, police said Tuesday.

But Donna Miranda, 51, walked free after Cook County state’s attorneys decided she might have acted in self-defense and would not be prosecuted.

Juan Miranda, 48, was shot six times about 8 a.m. Sunday in the basement of his wife’s home in the 9100 block of South Komensky Avenue.

He was declared dead at the scene two hours later, and his death was ruled a homicide Monday by the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Donna Miranda — who filed a domestic-abuse complaint against her husband last year and obtained a protection order against him in 2002 — said she fired to save her own life, said Keith Raspovich, Oak Lawn chief of detectives.

“She said they were arguing about who should pay for her daughter’s braces when he tried to choke her,” Raspovich said.

Cook County state’s attorney’s spokeswoman Marcy Jensen said “based on a review of all the facts, prosecutors found insufficient evidence to meet the burden of proof.”