Woman cleared of murdering husband gets five years on gun charge

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York woman cleared of murder charges in the shooting death of her retired police officer husband was sentenced to five years in prison on Thursday for gun possession, a decision her lawyer described as disheartening.

In a case seen as a test of the battered-woman defense, Barbara Sheehan, 50, was acquitted of second-degree murder last month after her lawyers successfully argued that she fired a gun at her husband only after he threatened to kill her.

She and her children testified during her trial about the violent household ruled by Raymond Sheehan, 49, a former New York City police sergeant. Both the prosecution and defense said the beatings and bruises came to an end on February 18, 2008, when Sheehan shot her husband 11 times in their Queens home.

She was sentenced in state Supreme Court in Queens to five years in prison and two years of probation on the unlawful gun possession charge, based on her use of her husband's weapons. She had faced a possible sentence of 3-1/2 to 15 years.

Her attorney Michael Dowd called her sentence "disheartening" and said an appeal was planned.

"I think it is a horrific message, the sentence in this case of five years, a horrific message for battered women," Dowd said outside the courthouse after sentencing.

"If you're a battered woman, move someplace else if you expect to get help because you're not going to get it here," he said.

Legal experts called the case a test of the battered-woman defense, in which a history of abuse is cited to explain a woman's mental state at the time she is accused of committing a crime.

Key to the battered-woman defense is the issue of self defense. New York state law justifies the use of lethal force in response to an immediate threat to life. Under the battered-woman defense, lethal force can sometimes be justified even if the threat may not appear immediate.

Court documents said the shooting happened after Sheehan refused to go on vacation with her husband. She testified she was scared because he had threatened to kill her if she didn't go.

Prosecutors said Sheehan shot her husband 11 times using two guns the former police officer had at home. Her husband was in the bathroom shaving before Sheehan shot him.

According to court documents, Sheehan told police the night of the incident: "I shot him! I shot him! I think he's dead. He's in the bathroom."

The defense said he had grabbed a gun he kept in the bathroom and pointed it at her head, and she shot him in self defense.

(Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Cynthia Johnston)