CROWN POINT | A Calumet Township woman who killed her husband by shooting him in the head while he slept was found not responsible by reason of insanity Wednesday.
Defense attorney Steven Mullins said his client, Jerri Finnearty, was terrified her husband was going to kill her.
"She's already served her prison sentence," he said Wednesday during closing arguments. "The prison term has to end today. Fairness dictates it, the evidence dictates it, the law dictates it and now you must dictate it."
Prosecutor Mary Ryan filed a petition immediately after the verdict to take Finnearty into custody so doctors could re-evaluate her and decide if she is a future threat to the community.
"We don't know what lingering effects there might be," Ryan said, adding she disagreed with the verdict by the Lake County Criminal Court jury. "She shot a man while he was asleep. Yeah, I find that dangerous."
Lake County Criminal Court Judge Thomas Stefaniak Jr. denied Ryan's motion and told her to get over the verdict. The defendant has been free for two and a half years without incident, he said.
"To place Jerri Finnearty in custody would be nothing more than to punish her, which the jury said we should not do," Stefaniak said.
Finnearty kept her composure until the jury was excused, then broke down in tears. She hugged Mullins and his family, then wrapped her arms around her children, who were seated in the front row.
Family members of Michael Finnearty, who was killed Jan. 23, 2006, quietly left the courtroom. They clasped hands in support before the verdict was read.
The family declined comment.
During the week-and-a-half long trial, Jerri Finnearty talked about years of abuse her husband heaped upon her and their five children. He kept his girlfriend shacked up in a trailer in the couple's driveway, and forced Jerri Finnearty to watch the then 3-week-old son he had had with the girlfriend, Finnearty testified.
The couple's children also testified during the trial.
Ryan pointed to inconsistencies in the defendant and children's statements to police, doctors and the jury.
"They've given you inconsistency after inconsistency, lie after lie, in sworn testimony after sworn testimony," Ryan said.
No police, hospital or dental records support Jerri Finnearty's claims of violence, she added.
When she told Michael Finnearty she was going to leave him, he told her "the only way she was going to leave and get out would be 6 feet under" before he fell asleep, records state. Michael Finnearty kept her pinned naked to the bed, his gun resting on her chest, records state.
Jerri Finnearty dozed several times, then said she slipped from underneath her husband's arm, grabbed her 22-caliber gun from the dresser and shot him behind the right ear.
