Jury convicts woman, 66, in shooting of son; his father was killed with the same gun decades earlier
The son of a 66-year-old Nevada woman told a jury it was his own fault that a gun went off during a violent argument with his mother three years ago, leaving him paralyzed.
But the jury didn’t buy Kevin Cooney’s story, reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal. They found Linda Cooney guilty Tuesday of attempted murder and three other counts after less than three hours of deliberation, including a lunch break.
Kevin Cooney had testified that he pummeled his mom during an argument. Later, as she tried to flee, he grabbed the .357 revolver she was holding and it went off into his own neck, the son told the jury. Kevin Cooney stood more than a foot taller than his mother and weighed 280 pounds.
However, there was only one bruise on Linda Cooney’s body where her son said he struck her, and no powder burns or other injuries to prove that he fired the revolver at close range, the newspaper says.
As a child, Kevin Cooney testified for his mother when she was acquitted of first-degree murder in Florida in the death of his father. Linda Cooney said she shot her husband in self-defense. The weapon was the same .357 revolver that paralyzed her son, authorities say.
She faces between three and 65 years when she is sentenced in July in the Las Vegas case.
See also:
ABAJournal.com: “Son whose testimony helped mom beat murder charge is a witness in her new case over his own shooting”
ABAJournal.com: “‘Mom does what I say or Mom gets the fist,’ testifies paralyzed son at her attempted-murder trial”
