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Harlem Woman Acquitted of Murdering Husband She Said Abused Her

By DNAinfo Staff on October 13, 2010 11:23am  | Updated on October 13, 2010 11:32am

Donna Cobb, 42, leaving the courtroom at the start of her murder trial.
Donna Cobb, 42, leaving the courtroom at the start of her murder trial.
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DNAinfo/Shayna Jacobs

By Shayna Jacobs

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — A Harlem woman who claimed she stabbed her abusive husband to death in self-defense was acquitted of second-degree murder and other charges by a Manhattan jury Tuesday. 

Donna Cobb, 42, attacked her then 39-year-old husband Kevin Cobb with a ceramic elephant-shaped item before plunging a butter knife into his chest in the bedroom of their St. Nicholas Avenue apartment on Nov. 11, 2006.

Cobb admitted to stabbing her husband, a convicted felon with a cocaine habit, whose anger was out-of-control and made her fear for her life, she said.

"I just wanted him to stop choking me," she testified on Oct. 4. "I didn't think he was going to die — that wasn't my intention."

After just two hours of deliberation Tuesday, the jury found Cobb not guilty of murder, apparently believing claims that the abuse was too much for her to bear.

"She's euphoric. She's happy," her attorney Earl Ward said. "She can now spend time with her six kids without having to worry about going to jail for the rest of her life."

Prosecutors argued Cobb created a story that she was the victim to cover up her fatal overreaction to a domestic dispute.

Cobb, who has been working as a nurse's aide at Harlem Hospital at the time of the incident, faced 25 years to life in prison.