48 Hours - Mommy Dearest

Episode Date: June 7, 2015

A Palm Beach socialite kills her ex-husband. Twenty years later, with the same gun, there's another shooting in the family. "48 Hours" correspondent Richard Schlesinger investigates.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. Paul Beach is probably one of the richest places in the world. Boy, these houses are unbelievable. It's new money, Donald Trump, Howard Stern, old money, the Fords, the Dodge families. Here in Palm Beach you're never at a loss for a story.

My name is Jose Lambie and I'm a gossip columnist. Back up. One of the biggest stories ever in Palm Beach was the Willie Kennedy Smith rape trial. He was cleared by the way. And then Roxanne Pulitzer, a socialite, had a really sordid divorce. But in 1993, it was the image of an 11-year-old boy testifying about his dad's murder that really captured the public's imagination.

I was scared and confused. 911. Just been a shooting. Just been a shooting. Who was shot? Who was shot? Jim Cooney, who was a lawyer, well-known, very popular in Palm Beach County, was killed by his ex-wife,wife Linda in front of their two children.

My kids are in the closet. I got a gun. Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Who is she when she arrives in Palm Beach? She's a nobody. She's an ambitious nobody.

So she shows up here, she marries this guy, and she's instantly in the money. The Cooneys were amongst the most established families in the Palm Beach area. Great political connections, lawyers, doctors! She shot him three times with a.357 Magnum. She claims it was self-defense. That was an execution. After she had shot a couple times, she actually went up to him and fired off another round.

Linda Cooney was charged with first degree murder. Kevin's testimony was everything. I was just hiding behind my bed. He was the only eyewitness that we had. Kevin's testimony exonerated his mother. So she was cleared of the murder in Florida, but guess what? 20 years later.

I was shocked. She uses the same gun to shoot her son, Kevin. I'm Richard Schlesinger. Tonight on 48 Hours, Mommy Dearest. Did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free, with a 48-hour plus subscription on Apple Podcasts.

In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reach the age of ten that would still have urged it. It just happens to all of them. I'm journalist Luke Jones, and for almost two years,

I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn trials I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. My son.

My son has a gunshot wound to the neck. Kevin. Kevin, are you all right? And how did he get this wound? Please, send some... How did he get this wound? With her handgun. Did somebody else shoot him or did he do it himself? Hello?

Hello? Hello? It was just after 8.30 a.m. and a frantic-sounding Linda Cooney was on the phone with Las Vegas police. She didn't say that he had done it. She didn't say that she had done it. She didn't say that he had done it. She didn't say that she had done it. She didn't say that somebody else had done it. Her 30-year-old son, Kevin, lay on the floor in a pool of blood. Ma'am, where's the gun? There were guns all over the house. There was

ammunition all over the floor. Las Vegas detectives Robert Schmidt and Lance Landholm. We had really no clue to what we had. And it was hard to get anything much out of Linda, the 63-year-old, former Palm Beach, aspiring socialite. She looked like a deer in a headlight. Miss Cooney, are you aware that this is being tape recorded? Yes, sir. Detectives made this recording as they interrogated Linda on the scene. Do you know how he got shot? No.

Somebody had to have done this. Did you shoot Kevin? No. How in the world did your son get shot when only you two were in the house? I don't know. You don't know or you don't want to know? Before being rushed to the hospital, Kevin told an officer the shooting was an accident, but that's not what detectives were hearing now. Has he tried to hurt himself in the past? Has he ever tried to commit suicide? He never went through with it. Okay, has he talked about it? Yes. The 11-year-old boy whose testimony once saved his mother from a murder conviction had grown up, according to Linda, into a troubled man.

When he wasn't threatening to take his own life, she says he was threatening to take hers. And Linda says at 1 a.m. on June 28, 2011, Kevin attacked her. She told us he came around from the corner. He grabbed me. He threw me down. And she showed them a bruise on her chest to prove it. He's sitting where Sarah's dead. She says they were arguing about Kevin's girlfriend, Karina Taylor.

She's an absolute psycho, and she will not leave Kevin alone. And Kevin is emotionally unstable as it is. Linda told police when the fight was all over, she went to sleep. And later that morning, she discovered Kevin laying on the living room floor. I did not hear a gunshot. That's the bizarre thing. I did not hear a gunshot. She seemed like a person who was trying to cover up what had happened. Either Kevin hurt himself or you shot him. And that's what we're here trying to figure out. There was no one else to ask. Kevin was now unconscious, so detectives turned their attention to the best piece of evidence they had, that.357 Magnum.

Well, that's kind of strange. To their astonishment, the gun that was used to shoot Kevin was the same gun Linda used to shoot and kill his father nearly 20 years earlier in Palm Beach. The serial numbers were an exact match. Is that surprising to you? It shocked me to no end. Las Vegas prosecutors Shannon Clowers and Michael Stoddard couldn't imagine why after Linda Cooney was acquitted of killing her ex-husband, she wanted her gun back.

You would think that that situation would be so traumatic for you that you would never want to see that weapon again. We needed to dig a lot more into this. They needed to know everything about what happened in Palm Beach to Linda's ex-husband, Jim. There was only one person in this world who would shoot Jim, and it was Linda. Jim's younger brother, Bob, says he never cared for Linda. Jim was the eldest of eight kids in a prominent Palm Beach family. He grew up to be a well-liked attorney, but Linda was new to Palm Beach. She was a Midwesterner. Her family had a farm in Wisconsin. Linda Cooney was an outsider whose goal in moving to South Florida was climb the social ladder. And with Jim Cooney, she got a way to do that.

They met at a party in Palm Beach. It's champagne, caviar, you name it. Jim's brother Bob worried, especially when he heard rumors of what this beautiful young woman did at her job. She was a legal secretary. One of her roles at that law firm was to help entertain clients. As a gentleman, may I assume that entertain was in quotes? Yes. But Jim ran off and married her, and they had two boys, Kevin and Christopher. But the marriage was not working. If you talk to Linda, she'll tell

you she considered herself to be an abused wife. Linda filed a police report claiming he assaulted her. Jim filed for divorce. She was a scary woman. But even after the case was settled, the fighting continued. That divorce was literally her worst-case scenario. Linda wanted more money. Jim, his family says, wanted more time with his kids. He would go to pick up the kids for his weekend, and they would not be there. But if Jim would give her some money, they might appear. How much would she demand to see the kids?

Jim told me it was usually about $500. Then on February 7th, 1992, Jim arrived at Linda's house with a court order demanding she hand over Kevin and Christopher for a weekend visit. If I saw Adam, I don't know if I got him or not. That was the last day of Jim Cooney's life. He was laying on his back, deceased from multiple gunshot wounds. In his right hand, he was holding a kitchen knife. Linda Cooney claimed Jim was coming at her with that knife,

and she shot him in self-defense. But Lieutenant Scott Smith did not believe her. She had no marks, no scrapes, no nothing. She was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Our main witness was Kevin Cooney. Little Kevin Cooney saw his mother shoot his father. Yes, it's sound loud. And he was called to testify. And your ears were

ringing? Yes. He took the stand holding an action figure. Kevin told police his eight-year-old brother Chris was hiding in the closet while he was peeking out from a hole in his bedroom door. I got really frightened and nervous and scared. He could see something in his father's hand before the shooting, but he wasn't sure it was a knife. He said it could have been a key, it could have been a knife, he didn't know. But he did know for certain that after the shooting, his father's hand was empty. Something just didn't seem right. Police think Linda planted a knife in Jim's hand after she killed him to make it look

like he was attacking her. With Jim dead, she'd have the kids all to herself. The children were her lifeline. The kids were the key to the riches of the Coonies. Correct. They were beneficiaries of Jim Cooney's million-dollar life insurance policy. But it was the timing of this very dramatic 911 call that may be the most damning evidence. He tried to kill me. Please, he's got a knife. Before Linda spoke to 911, she tried to call her friend a lawyer. What did you make of that?

Strange. And police say even before she was arrested, Linda began convincing Kevin that he saw that knife in his father's hand. I think she had planted something in his head and he knew he saw something. You saw something in your dad's right hand? Yes. Was it dark or shiny? It had a glary shine. And while Kevin never testified that he actually saw his father wielding a knife,

the implication was enough. I think we lost the case at that point in time. The defendant is not guilty. It took the jury just hours to determine Linda Cooney was not guilty of murder. Tonight on Hard Copy. She gave only one sit-down television interview. It was to the tabloid program Hard Copy. Is Linda Cooney a murderer? No, no I'm not. Definitely not. What are you? I'm a mother who defended herself and her children. But not everyone in Palm Beach saw it that way. She was always considered a murderer. She knew she had to start over. So Linda packed up the boys

and moved to Las Vegas. She understood that you can move into Vegas and nobody's asking questions. And no one did until police arrived at her home and discovered her son was the latest victim of that.357 Magnum. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing the best idea yet.

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Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own. She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all. I'm Marsha Clark, host of the new podcast Informants Lawyer X. In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney, I've seen some crazy cases, and this one belongs right at the top of the list.

She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access, I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informant's Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, and listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now. right now. After he was shot in the neck, Kevin Cooney lay partially paralyzed and unconscious, and no one could explain how he got shot, not even his mother. Somebody has to tell the truth, and Linda Cooney wasn't doing that. But three days later Kevin woke up and told a story most people did not expect. When he wakes up the first conscious

words are no mom, I'm afraid of mom, mom shot me. We also have an unbiased witness. Kevin was no longer saying it was an accident, and prosecutors say he repeated that statement that his own mother shot him to several nurses. He was very anxious and appeared to be scared. That did not surprise Kevin's girlfriend, Karina Taylor. I've lived in fear of this woman for a very long time. Karina began dating Kevin in 2011. She was a rising star in the mixed martial arts fighting world, while Kevin made good money as an amateur costume designer. But Karina says one thing Kevin couldn't mask was his fear of his mother. He told me she had issues with his girlfriends in the past and that she was crazy and that she didn't like when he would date people.

Karina says Linda never approved of her cage fighting or her background, especially the fact that Karina had once briefly worked at what is politely called a gentleman's club. She told me that their family would never accept me and stay away from our family. To make sure she got the message, Karina says Linda had given her a warning. She had expressed to me that she carried a handgun in her purse at all times, and she wanted me to know that. And the warning worked. So you're a mixed martial arts fighter and you were afraid of this woman? Yes. I am not Superman and I cannot bounce bullets off of my chest. Linda Cooney is extremely dangerous. Kevin's

former girlfriend, Clarita Kendall, says she also felt threatened by Linda Cooney. Kevin was doing his best to be the buffer between his mother and I, keeping me hidden. That's because Clarita had received a call from Linda from out of nowhere. It was one of the most bizarre conversations of my life. Immediately, she starts interrogating me about the relationship. She was asking me questions about my age. She's so verbally abusive. She calls me Shanghai Lily, Tokyo Roge. She calls me a gold digger.

She tells me, like, I'm an Asian whore. And, like, I'm after this pot of gold that Kevin has. And Clarita says after Linda made those angry calls, things got a lot scarier. I was dropping Kevin off at his house and Linda Cooney pulls up. She jumps out of the car and she starts beating my car, kicking my car. So she called the police. And then Linda came and she was forced to look over her shoulder. She became obsessed with me. This was not stalking.

She was hunting me. I wanted to believe that she was overprotective. I wanted to believe that the problem was my age. And what was the problem? That no one could have her son. Prosecutors say after draining her ex-husband's million-dollar life insurance policy, Linda was financially dependent on Kevin and his younger brother Christopher, a police officer. They both lived with her, and when Linda felt she was losing control of her sons,

prosecutors say she'd put an end to their relationships. Linda's purpose was to make the women's lives so miserable that they would no longer want to be with Kevin. But it wasn't working with Kevin's new girlfriend, Karina. Prosecutors say these Facebook messages suggest Kevin was finally ready to move out. He says that he's got to be so careful about how he's going to separate himself from his mother. He's basically made the decision to leave. He was becoming more defiant. But the prosecutors say as Kevin got more defiant, Linda got more desperate. She sent these text messages to Karina's supervisor at a non-profit where she volunteered. What do those text messages say? She's a succubus. All these different things. Succubus?

Yes. We had to look it up. Help me out. It's a demon in female form who has sex with men in their sleep to manipulate them. I wanted Kevin to just fix the situation. And investigators believe that's what Kevin was doing with his mother the morning she shot him. That was probably the final straw that he told her, I'm out of here. And he meant it. She would not let him walk out that door. What do you believe happened? I believe that Kevin was downstairs. That she came down there with the.357, and she shot him. There were a lot of guns in that house. Why do you think she used this one? It's a powerful gun. She knows the effect of it is death.

And prosecutors say, just like in Palm Beach, Linda did not immediately call 911 for help. It shows she wanted him to die. Kevin was close to death, but Linda waited nearly 16 minutes before dialing 911. Phone records show her first call was to her other son, Chris. It only became more and more apparent to us as the case went on that, in fact, she was guilty of this. Nearly three months after Kevin's shooting, Linda Cooney was arrested and charged with attempted murder. And then witness-wise... Prosecutors were more than confident about their case against her. We have Karina, Clarita, Nurse Luna, Nurse Johnson, Nurse Hatch, and Nurse Irvin,

where Kevin makes the statements of, my mom shot me, I'm afraid of my mom, and then the forensic evidence and the physical evidence. You're just bragging now. I am. But they still had one very big problem with their key witness, Kevin himself. We really don't know what's going to come out of his mouth until it actually happens. She doesn't have any barriers that the rest of us have. Nobody knows how far she will go.

She's probably the most controlling and manipulative person that you could come across. She scares me. She scares you? You're a prosecutor? Yes. Four months after a bullet was fired into Kevin Cooney's neck, two things were clear. Kevin would never walk again, and the case against Linda Cooney might never fly.

Because Kevin had completely changed his story again. He was no longer blaming his mother for shooting him. He says his mother and him were fighting, that he attacked his mother, and that it was an accident. It was an accident. Linda Cooney's attorney, Michael Becker, says none of this should be a surprise. It's similar to the story Kevin first told police, even before he went to the hospital, as he lay gravely wounded. He believed he was dying, and I believe that it was a dying declaration. His intent was to go on the record and make sure if he didn't survive that his mother would not be blamed.

So why would Kevin tell all those nurses he was afraid of his mother and she shot him? I think that there are psychological explanations for why he would have been blaming Linda at that time. Kevin was upset his mother was meddling in his relationship. But eventually, Becker says, Kevin came to accept responsibility for the shooting. He basically had said, I was an ass and it was my fault. There have been reports of violence in the Cooney home for years, and there were numerous calls to 911. I think that there was a duality to Kevin. I think that away from the home, he was gregarious and friendly, but I think at at home he had a lot of anger

remember those facebook messages kevin sent to his girlfriend karina he said he had to be careful but he wanted to move away from his mother becker says a closer look reveals a different story you've got facebook messages in print from from Kevin where he's actively fantasizing about killing his mom. After one argument with his mother just a few weeks before the shooting, Kevin wrote, I wanted to kill her. He also said that he had spit in his mother's face and that he was about to crack. If he is saying, I could kill my mother, doesn't that support the defense's argument that he came at her and was trying to kill her? Sure, but you have to read the whole posting.

If you read the next paragraph, and this is to Karina from Kevin, it says, honey, by the way, I'm just kidding. I don't think that there's such thing as jestful conversation about killing your mother. Becker says it was a hint of what was to come, a violent confrontation that ended with the shooting. His best evidence, the words of the victim, Kevin Cooney, which could be a problem for the prosecutors. His first statement said it was an accident. Correct. Why is that not, in your mind, the most important statement that he makes?

It's right at the time of the shooting. That's one of the reasons we had to establish the relationship that him and his mom had. They insist Kevin was terrified of his mother. Not only did Linda try to control who her sons dated, according to prosecutors, she controlled who they spoke to. She put a child block on my phone number, so... I'm sorry, she had control of the phone? Yes. And she blocked your number from his phone? Correct. And how old was he at the time, pardon me? We had just turned 30. She had the passwords.

She was the one that could do the blocking of the texting or the phone calling. She controlled it. They had no control over it at all. Does she love her kids, do you think? Yes, but not appropriately. They need to grow up, make their own decisions, have bedroom doors, be able to... They don't have bedroom doors? No. No. The boys' bedrooms had no bedroom doors. And I think it's telling because Michael and I call them boys, and I don't think we do it intentionally. They're men,

they're grown men, and yet the way they're treated are like boys. And prosecutors believe it's been that way since that horrible moment, when they were boys and Kevin saw his mother shoot his father. Prosecutors suspect Linda convinced Kevin back then that Jim would have killed them all had she not shot him first, and that Kevin believes he owes his mother his life. It's been going on for so long, the brainwashing, the manipulation, the control has happened since they were essentially little boys. There has to be a psychological control that she had over them that we as normal people don't even understand and

can't really comprehend. But Linda's lawyer is either very perceptive or extremely creative, because he will argue Linda's parenting style could be her best defense. If Linda is strange, isn't that why Kevin snapped? Because he was tired of dealing with his strange mom. And I don't deny that Linda is strange. Or perhaps Linda is a lot strange. But does that mean that she shot her son? The state of Nevada plaintiff versus Linda Cooney defendant.

On April 8, 2014, more than 20 years after being acquitted of murdering her ex-husband, Linda Cooney is back in court. All rise to the jury. This time for the attempted murder of her son, Kevin, who was shot and left partially paralyzed. Linda Cooney, the woman sitting right over there, will use fear, intimidation, manipulation, control. Prosecutor Michael Stoddard opens the state's case. And one of the things that you'll hear that Linda Cooney wants is exclusive control of her children. The state would do everything possible to make you not like Linda Cooney, But defense attorney Michael Becker argues Linda Cooney is not the mother of the year, but she would never try to kill her son. KEVIN COONEY, Kevin was to blame for his own injuries.

JOHN YANG, The state calls Christopher Cooney. He's 30 years old, Kevin's brother, Linda's younger son. Under oath, he will have to detail what he and his mother talked about on the phone just minutes after the shooting. I was trying to ask the questions like where is he hit, what the hell happened, and I couldn't get a response from her. I couldn't get a response from her. He was finishing his shift as a police officer when his mother called him instead of 911.

Their conversation lasted nearly 16 minutes, and all the while, Kevin lay dying. Prosecutors hope to show the jury that Linda delayed calling 911, but they say Chris was determined to put all the blame on his brother. If Kevin was upset or depressed because of whatever relationship woe he had, he would certainly carry it out on us. Chris described his brother as hostile and violent, with a history of losing his temper at home. And then Chris testified that before trial began, his mother told him exactly what happened right before the shooting. He was in a full-blown rage and he struck her.

She did say that Kevin was threatening to kill her. According to Chris, the loaded.357 was always kept on the living room floor for home protection. Chris says his mother told him she believed Kevin was going for the gun, so she grabbed it first and ran for the door. And that's when Kevin pried it from her. The next thing she knew was bang and Kevin went down. Linda claimed she never even pointed the gun at Kevin and she did not fire it that morning. I don't buy that Linda shot her son. I don't think there's any motive. Well, the argument was he was going to move out. She didn't want to lose him. And it was the old, if I can't have him, nobody can have him motive. I suppose that may work in the movie theater. I find it hard to believe.

Becker is hoping the jury feels the same way when they hear from Kevin himself. Mr. Cooney, can you hear me? Yes. Kevin first testified from his hospital bed. Remember when you listen to him that he's a witness for the prosecution. I was just in a rage. I was just so angry that night. As his mother looks on, Kevin takes all the blame for the shooting. Kevin takes all the blame for the shooting. Prosecutors have told the jury Linda needs to control her sons. But Kevin says he was in control in the house, not his mother. I tell mom what to do. Mom's the kid in the house, not his mother. I tell mom what to do. Mom's the kid in this relationship, not me.

Mom does what I say or else mom gets a fist. That's the way it works. He is wanting to make it so much better for his mom. What does he do? He goes to the extreme to try to get the jury to believe that he's this monster man. Show me with your hand the exact position of the gun. Look at how Kevin demonstrates how he held the gun. Prosecutors say if he held it that way, the gun would have been fired at an upward angle. But the state's medical expert says the bullet was fired at a downward angle. It was slightly downward and slightly to the left.

In all, the state called 26 witnesses, including nurses who testified that Kevin was afraid of his mother. Do you don't want to see your mother anymore was the first question I asked him. And he said, no, he him, and he said no. He said because she shot me. And prosecutors were allowed to tell the jury that Linda was acquitted of murdering her ex-husband more than 20 years ago, and that the same gun was used to shoot Kevin. State calls Clarita Kendall to the stand. But the state saved their most critical witness for the last day.

He had something he had to tell me that he felt was very urgent. Kevin's ex-girlfriend, Clarita Kendall, testified that she visited Kevin and he told her what happened when he was shot. Does he indicate at any time that she picked up or had a gun in her hand? It was in her waistband. He said he started arguing with his mom and he was sitting on the couch. Kevin never said it was an accident. Instead, Clarita testified that Kevin told her he was sitting down when he was shot and that could explain why the bullet was fired at a downward angle. What did you think when you heard that? I said, bingo, that's the story, and it matches the physical evidence.

I don't believe it. But what matters is, will the jury believe it? Next witness. Becker has a way to counter Clarita's testimony, and it's not what anyone expected. You just only swear the testimony you're about to give in this action is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Yes. Kevin Cooney is called to testify in person, this time as a defense witness. Were you expecting Kevin to come back as a...

No. This has got to be the first time I've ever seen a prosecution witness become a defense witness within a couple of days. No, it was completely unexpected. It was just like years ago when Kevin testified at his mother's murder trial, and now he could save her again. She got a hold of that gun. I got a hold of it. I jerked it up away from her.

Which way was this gun pointed when it was fired? Down. Down. Do you remember testifying Monday that it was pointed upwards? No. Prosecutors, it was clear that Kevin had changed his testimony to protect his mother.

Your hopes of being released from the hospital, do you also hope that your mom will be there to take care of you? She can't possibly take care of me. You want her there, though, don't you? You know, I don't know how my mom feels about me at this point. What if she still loves you? Would you want her around?

I certainly would like her around, yeah. Is that why the angle of the trajectory has somehow changed from Monday to Friday? What? He loves his mother that much. He wants her back, which is his bias on that stand. Linda Cooney never testified, so jurors had only Kevin's firsthand version or versions of what happened. Which side does he help? In closing arguments, both sides want the jury to believe Kevin. Somebody, when dying, will speak the truth. Somebody, when dying, will speak the truth.

That's what Kevin was doing when he said it was an accident. When he wakes up, his first conscious words are what? I'm afraid of mom. No mom. She shot me. In the last few hours of this trial, the lawyers have to define Linda Cooney. Is she a victim, as the defense says? find Linda Cooney. Is she a victim, as the defense says? Linda had injuries that were inconsistent with anything other than having been attacked. She controlled the phone. They had no bedroom doors. Or is she a controlling, possessive, vindictive mother who would do anything to dominate her children, even at their own expense. She's not going to lose Kevin to that succubus. Nobody is going to have him if she can't keep him.

I got the call, and I just looked at him, and I'm like, we have a verdict. It was just like the Florida case 21 years earlier. The jury came back with a verdict in Linda Cooney's latest trial in less than a day. Way less. I was shocked at roughly an hour. You may be seated. In fact, the jurors spent about as much time eating lunch as they did deliberating. Has the jury reached a verdict?

Yes, it has. Neither side knew what to expect. The verdict would likely depend on which version of Kevin Cooney's story the jury would believe. I'll put it out here. The clerk will now read the words aloud. We, the jury, find the defendant, Linda Cooney, guilty of attempt murder. Guilty. The jury did not believe Kevin when he said he shot himself by accident. And there were a number of other charges against Linda Cooney.

The jury found her guilty of battery with a deadly weapon, And there were a number of other charges against Linda Cooney. The jury found her guilty of battery with a deadly weapon, guilty of intimidating Kevin before he testified, and guilty of stalking Kevin's girlfriend, Karina Taylor. Linda's attorney says he knows exactly when he lost the case. I knew going into the case that when the jury heard about Florida 20 years ago, that that was going to be the single most devastating blow to the defense. My hunch is that the jurors probably felt that whatever happened in Florida, she must have gotten away with something. Nearly three months later, Linda went back to court for her sentencing. The other women in Kevin's life, Karina and Clarita, were also there,

and so was Linda's son, Chris. Dr. Cooney, if you come to the witness stand, please be sworn. Jim Cooney's brother, Bob, was there to remind the judge of everything he says Linda did to his family. Linda subjected my family to harassment, threats, injuries, and death. And he warned the judge that his nephew, Kevin, could still be in danger if Linda is ever released. Imagine the potential ongoing abuse that Kevin might be subjected to, inherent with visits from his mommy dearest. Kevin didn't come to the sentencing, but he sent this note defending his mother, saying, My mother has been wrongly accused and convicted of crimes she did not commit. has been wrongly accused and convicted of crimes she did not commit. It was by my own actions that I find myself in my present condition. My mother is unjustly incarcerated.

And then, at last, Linda spoke. I was a battered wife. My sons were battered as well. I have done my best to raise, educate, and protect my sons as a single mother. But Linda blamed it all on Kevin. Unfortunately my son Kevin carried with him an anger and rage disorder that he must have inherited from his father. Yet I always protected, defended, and loved my son, and I would never have intentionally harmed him. What happened was his fault. It was an accident. Please have mercy on me, Your Honor. Clearly, prosecutors don't have mercy in mind. This woman is a clear and present danger to

everyone in society and anyone that crosses her path. If there was a woman who was deserving of the maximum sentence on all charges, this woman is it. The judge didn't go that far. She sentenced Linda Cooney to 13 to 40 years in prison. You think that even with her in prison, conceivably for the rest of her life, they'll still be tied to her? One would hope that they could break off and live their own lives. Whether it can happen or not with her, I don't know. Do you still think about your nephews who you haven't seen, I guess, since that trial? Yes, I think about them all the time.

Bob Cooney would like to help his nephews and wants to be sure Kevin gets the medical care he'll need for the rest of his life. My brother would have done it. I hope there's some things that I can do to help this story. It's not going to have a happy ending, but maybe I can make it a little bit happier than it might be otherwise. After the verdict, Bob Cooney tried to visit Kevin. Kevin refused to see him. Both Kevin and Christopher feel their mother's verdict was unjust

and hope it is overturned on appeal. Kevin and Christopher talk to their mother on the phone every week. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.