Waynesville, FloridaFrom the
February 5, 2009 Florida Times-Union:
A Brantley County jury acquitted a woman of murder and related charges Wednesday in the shooting death of her husband last year.
Teresa McKinney, 47, of Waynesville was found not guilty of malice murder, felony murder and four counts of aggravated assault in the death of Jeffrey McKinney, 45. He was shot in the head with a .22-caliber rifle on Feb. 27 at their home and died a month later.
Jurors deliberated 90 minutes before acquitting her in the death that her attorney, John Thigpen, argued was "justifiable homicide."
"He beat her to pieces, just black and blue," Thigpen told the Times-Union after the verdict. "He beat her like she was a borrowed mule. She acted in self-defense, and it was justifiable homicide."
McKinney, a retired school bus driver, testified she shot her husband after he repeatedly hit her in the head with a broomstick in an attack that began when he started cursing and verbally abusing her. After beating her, he left the house and she locked him out. Mc-Kinney told jurors she warned him that if he returned, she would kill him.
She said he came back and smashed in a window with a bicycle in an effort to force his way into the home.
McKinney said she feared for her life, so she fired several shots with a .30-06 rifle, .410-gauge shotgun and a .22-caliber rifle in an effort to scare him away. She said she didn't aim at him or try to kill her husband, an electrician.
When he was shot, she called 911 for help. He was found wounded in the yard.