Mommy Dearest | Full Episode

0:12 Palm Beach is probably one of the richest places in the world.

0:17 Boy, these houses are unbelievable.

0:21 It's new money, Donald Trump, Howard Stern,

0:26 old money, the Fords, the Dodge families.

0:31 Here in Palm Beach, you're never at a loss for a story.

0:34 My name is Jose Lambia and I'm a gossip columnist.

0:38 Back up.

0:39 One of the biggest stories ever in Palm

0:41 Beach was the Willie Kennedy Smith rape trial.

0:44 He was cleared, by the way.

0:46 And then Roxan Pulitzer, a socialite, had a really sorted divorce.

0:55 But in 1993, it was the image of an 11-year-old boy

0:59 testifying about his dad's murder that really captured the public's imagination.

1:05 I was scared and confused.

1:10 911.

1:10 Just been a shooting.

1:11 Just been a shooting.

1:13 Who was shot?

1:15 Who was shot?

1:18 Jim Cooney, who was a lawyer, well known, very popular in Palm Beach County,

1:22 was killed by his ex-wife, Linda, in front of their two children.

1:26 My kids are in the closet.

1:27 I've got a gun.

1:36 Who is she when she arrives in Palm Beach?

1:38 She's a nobody.

1:39 She's an ambitious nobody.

1:41 So, she shows up here.

1:43 She marries this guy.

1:44 She's instantly in the money.

1:47 The Coonis were amongst the most established families in the Palm Beach area.

1:53 Great political connections, lawyers, doctors.

1:57 You're trying to kill me.

1:58 Who did Jim Cooney?

2:02 Please help me.

2:03 She shot him three times with a 357 Magnum.

2:10 She claims it was self-defense.

2:12 That was an execution.

2:13 After she had shot a couple times,

2:15 she actually went up to him and fired off another round.

2:19 Linda Cooney was charged with first-degree murder.

2:25 Kevin's testimony was everything.

2:27 I was just hiding behind my bed.

2:30 He was the only eyewitness that we had.

2:32 Kevin's testimony exonerated his mother.

2:36 So, she was cleared of the murder in Florida.

2:39 But guess what?

2:41 20 years later, I was shocked.

2:47 She uses the same gun to shoot her son, Kevin.

2:59 [Music] I'm Richard Slesinger.

3:02 Tonight on 48 hours, mommy dearest.

3:07 [Music] [Music] [Music] Yes.

3:42 My son, my son has a gunshot wound to the neck.

3:46 Kevin.

3:48 Kevin, are you all right?

3:50 And how did he get this wound?

3:52 Please send a How did he get this wound?

3:55 With her handgun.

3:57 Did somebody else shoot him or did he do it himself?

4:00 Hello.

4:01 Hello.

4:03 Hello.

4:06 It was just after 8:30 a.m.

4:08 and a frantic sounding Linda Cooney was on the phone with Las Vegas police.

4:14 She didn't say that he had done it.

4:16 She didn't say that she had done it.

4:17 She didn't say that somebody else had done it.

4:20 Her 30-year-old son Kevin lay on the floor in a pool of blood.

4:25 Ma'am, where's where's the gun?

4:27 There were guns all over the house.

4:29 There was ammunition all over the floor.

4:31 Las Vegas detectives Robert Schmidt and Lance Landholm.

4:35 We had really no clue to what we had.

4:37 And it was hard to get anything much out of Linda,

4:40 the 63-year-old former Palm Beach aspiring social light.

4:45 She looked like a deer in a headlight.

4:49 Miss Cooney, are you aware that this is being tape recorded?

4:52 Yes, sir.

4:53 Detectives made this recording as they interrogated Linda on the scene.

4:58 Do you know how he got shot?

5:00 No.

5:01 Somebody had to have done this.

5:02 Did you shoot Kevin?

5:06 No.

5:05 How in the world did your son get shot when only you two were in the house?

5:10 I don't know.

5:11 You don't know or you don't want to know.

5:14 Before being rushed to the hospital,

5:16 Kevin told an officer the shooting was an accident.

5:19 But that's not what detectives were hearing now.

5:23 Has he tried to hurt himself in the past?

5:26 Has he ever tried to commit suicide?

5:28 Never went through with it.

5:29 Okay.

5:29 Has he talked about it?

5:32 Yes.

5:37 The 11-year-old boy whose testimony once saved

5:40 his mother from a murder conviction had grown up,

5:44 according to Linda, into a troubled man.

5:46 When he wasn't threatening to take his own life,

5:49 she says he was threatening to take hers.

5:55 And Linda says at 1:00 a.m.

5:57 on June 28th, 2011, Kevin attacked her.

6:02 She told us, "He came around from a corner.

6:04 He grabbed me.

6:05 He threw me down."

6:07 And she showed them a bruise on her chest to prove it.

6:12 Sarah's dead.

6:13 She says they were arguing about Kevin's girlfriend, Karina Taylor.

6:18 She's an absolute psycho and she will not leave Kevin alone.

6:22 And Kevin is emotionally unstable as it is.

6:26 Linda told police when the fight was all over, she went to sleep.

6:29 And later that morning, she discovered Kevin laying on the living room floor.

6:35 I did not hear a gunshot.

6:36 That's the bizarre thing.

6:37 I did not hear a gunshot.

6:39 She seemed like a person who was trying to cover up what had happened.

6:43 Either Kevin hurt himself or you shot him.

6:47 And that's what we're here trying to figure out.

6:49 There was no one else to ask.

6:51 Kevin was now unconscious.

6:53 So, detectives turned their attention to the best piece of evidence they had.

6:59 That .357 Magnum.

7:02 Well, that's kind of strange.

7:03 To their astonishment,

7:04 the gun that was used to shoot Kevin was the same gun Linda

7:09 used to shoot and kill his father nearly 20 years earlier in Palm Beach.

7:15 The serial numbers were an exact match.

7:17 Is that surprising to you?

7:18 It it shocked me to no end.

7:21 Las Vegas prosecutors Shannon Clower and Michael Stodder couldn't imagine

7:26 why after Linda Cooney was acquitted of killing her ex-husband,

7:31 she wanted her gun back.

7:33 You would think that that situation would be so traumatic

7:36 for you that you would never want to see that weapon again.

7:40 We needed to dig a lot more into this.

7:42 They needed to know everything about what

7:44 happened in Palm Beach to Linda's ex-husband, Jim.

7:48 There was only one person in this world who would shoot Jim, and it was Linda.

7:52 Jim's younger brother, Bob, says he never cared for Linda.

7:56 Jim was the eldest of eight kids in a prominent Palm Beach family.

8:01 He grew up to be a well-liked attorney, but Linda was new to Palm Beach.

8:06 She was a Midwesterner.

8:08 Her family had a farm in Wisconsin.

8:11 Linda Cooney was an outsider whose goal in moving

8:14 to South Florida was climb the social ladder.

8:17 And with Jim Cooney, she got a way to do that.

8:23 They met at a party in Palm Beach.

8:25 It's champagne, caviar, you name it.

8:28 Jim's brother, Bob, worried,

8:30 especially when he heard rumors of what

8:32 this beautiful young woman did at her job.

8:36 She was a legal secretary.

8:38 One of her roles at that law firm was to help entertain clients.

8:43 As a gentleman, may I assume that entertain was in quotes.

8:48 Yes.

8:50 But Jim ran off and married her and they had two boys, Kevin and Christopher.

8:56 But the marriage was not working.

8:58 If you talk to Linda,

8:59 she'll tell you she considered herself to be an abused wife.

9:03 Linda filed a police report claiming he assaulted her.

9:06 Jim filed for divorce.

9:09 She was a scary woman.

9:12 [Music] But even after the case was settled, the fighting continued.

9:17 That divorce was literally her worst case scenario.

9:20 Linda wanted more money.

9:22 Jim, his family says, wanted more time with his kids.

9:27 He would go to pick up the kids for his weekend and they would not be there.

9:32 But if Jim would give her some money, they might appear.

9:37 How much would she demand to see the kids?

9:40 Jim told me it was usually about $500.

9:45 Then on February 7th, 1992,

9:48 Jim arrived at Linda's house with a court order demanding

9:52 she hand over Kevin and Christopher for a weekend visit.

9:57 If I shot at him, I don't know if I got him or not.

9:59 That was the last day of Jim Cooney's life.

10:03 He was laying on his back, deceased from multiple gunshot wounds.

10:07 In his right hand, he was holding a kitchen knife.

10:10 Linda Cooney claimed Jim was coming

10:12 at her with that knife and she shot him in self-defense.

10:15 But Lieutenant Scott Smith did not believe her.

10:19 She had no marks, no scrapes, no nothing.

10:22 She was arrested and charged with firstdegree murder.

10:26 Our main witness was Kevin Cooney.

10:31 Little Kevin Cooney saw his mother shoot his father.

10:35 Yes, it sound loud.

10:37 And he was called to testify.

10:39 And your ears were ringing.

10:43 Yes.

10:42 He took the stand holding an action figure.

10:49 Kevin told police his 8-year-old brother Chris was hiding in the closet

10:54 while he was peeking out from a hole in his bedroom door.

10:59 I got really frightened, nervous, and scared.

11:03 He could see something in his father's hand before the shooting,

11:07 but he wasn't sure it was a knife.

11:10 He said could have been a key.

11:11 Could have been a knife.

11:11 He didn't know.

11:12 But he did know for certain that after the shooting,

11:16 his father's hand was empty.

11:19 Something just didn't seem right.

11:23 Police think Linda planted a knife in Jim's hand after she

11:26 killed him to make it look like he was attacking her.

11:30 With Jim dead, she'd have the kids all to herself.

11:35 The children were her lifeline.

11:37 The kids were the key to the riches of the Coonis.

11:40 Correct.

11:40 They were beneficiaries of Jim Cooney's milliondoll life insurance policy.

11:48 But it was the timing of this very dramatic

11:51 911 call that may be the most damning evidence.

11:56 He tried to kill me.

11:57 Please.

11:58 She's got a knife.

11:59 Before Linda spoke to 911, she tried to call her friend, a lawyer.

12:04 What' you make of that?

12:06 Strange.

12:06 And police say even before she was arrested,

12:09 Linda began convincing Kevin that he saw that knife in his father's hand.

12:15 I think she had planted something in his head and he knew he saw something.

12:20 You saw something in your dad's right hand?

12:29 Yes.

12:28 Was it dark or shiny?

12:32 It had a glary shine.

12:34 And while Kevin never testified that he

12:37 actually saw his father wielding a knife,

12:40 the implication was enough.

12:43 I think we lost the case at that point in time.

12:46 The defendant is not guilty.

12:48 It took the jury just hours to determine Linda Cooney was not guilty of murder.

12:54 Tonight on Hard Copy, she gave only one sitdown television interview.

13:00 It was to the tabloid program Hard Copy.

13:03 Is Linda Cooney a murderer?

13:06 No.

13:06 No, I'm not.

13:09 Definitely not.

13:09 What are you?

13:12 I'm a mother who defended herself and her children.

13:16 But not everyone in Palm Beach saw it that way.

13:20 She was always considered a murderer.

13:22 She knew she had to start over.

13:28 So, Linda packed up the boys and moved to Las Vegas.

13:33 She understood that you can move into Vegas and nobody's asking questions.

13:37 And no one did until police arrived at her home

13:41 and discovered her son was the latest victim of that 357 Magnum.

13:51 [Music] After he was shot in the neck,

14:04 Kevin Cooney lay partially paralyzed and unconscious.

14:08 And no one could explain how he got shot, not even his mother.

14:13 Somebody has to tell the truth.

14:14 And Linda Cooney wasn't doing that.

14:18 But 3 days later, Kevin woke up and told a story most people did not expect.

14:25 When he wakes up, the first conscious words are, "No, mom.

14:30 I'm afraid of mom.

14:33 Mom shot me."

14:38 We also have an unbiased witness.

14:40 Kevin was no longer saying it was an accident and prosecutors say

14:44 he repeated that statement that his own mother shot him to several nurses.

14:50 He was very anxious and appeared to be scared.

14:52 That did not surprise Kevin's girlfriend, Karina Taylor.

14:57 I've lived in fear of this woman for a very long time.

14:59 Karina began dating Kevin in 2011.

15:03 She was a rising star in the mixed martial arts fighting world.

15:08 While Kevin made good money as an amateur costume designer,

15:12 but Karina says one thing Kevin couldn't mask was his fear of his mother.

15:18 He told me she had issues with his girlfriends in the past

15:22 and that she was crazy and that she didn't like when he would date people.

15:27 Karina says Linda never approved of her cage fighting or her background,

15:32 especially the fact that Karina had once briefly

15:35 worked at what is politely called a gentleman's club.

15:40 She told me that their family would never

15:43 accept me and stay away from our family.

15:45 To make sure she got the message, Karina says Linda had given her a warning.

15:51 She had expressed to me that she carried a handgun

15:54 in her purse at all times and she wanted me to know that.

15:57 And the warning worked.

15:59 So, you're a mixed martial arts fighter and you were afraid of this woman.

16:05 Yes, I am not Superman and I cannot bounce bullets off of my chest.

16:09 Linda Cooney is extremely dangerous.

16:12 Kevin's former girlfriend, Clarita Kendall,

16:15 says she also felt threatened by Linda Cooney.

16:18 Kevin was doing his best to be the buffer

16:21 between his mother and I, keeping me hidden.

16:26 That's because Clarita had received a call from Linda from out of nowhere.

16:31 It was one of the most bizarre conversations of my life.

16:34 Immediately, she starts interrogating me about the relationship.

16:39 She was asking me questions about my age.

16:43 She's so verbally abusive.

16:45 She calls me Shanghai Lily, Tokyo Ro.

16:48 She calls me a gold digger.

16:50 She tells me like I'm an Asian[ __] and like

16:54 I'm after this pot of gold that Kevin has.

16:57 And Clarita says after Linda made those angry calls, things got a lot scarier.

17:04 I was dropping Kevin off at his house and Linda Cooney pulls up.

17:09 She jumps out of the car and she starts beating my car, kicking my car.

17:13 So she called the police.

17:26 Is this your boyfriend ex-girlfriend or well this is his mother?

17:30 Throughout her relationship with Kevin,

17:32 Clarita says she was forced to look over her shoulder.

17:36 She became obsessed with me.

17:38 This was not stalking.

17:40 She was hunting me.

17:42 I wanted to believe that she was overprotective.

17:45 I wanted to believe that the problem was was my age.

17:49 And what was the problem?

17:51 That no one could have her son.

17:56 Prosecutors say after draining

17:58 her ex-husband's milliondoll life insurance policy,

18:02 Linda was financially dependent on Kevin

18:06 and his younger brother Christopher, a police officer.

18:09 They both lived with her.

18:11 And when Linda felt she was losing control of her sons,

18:15 prosecutors say she'd put an end to their relationships.

18:22 Linda's purpose was to make the women's lives so miserable

18:26 that they would no longer want to be with Kevin.

18:29 But it wasn't working with Kevin's new girlfriend, Karina.

18:33 Prosecutors say these Facebook messages suggest

18:36 Kevin was finally ready to move out.

18:40 He says that he's got to be so careful

18:42 about how he's going to separate himself from his mother.

18:45 He's basically made the decision to leave.

18:47 He was becoming more defiant.

18:49 But the prosecutors say as Kevin got more defiant, Linda got more desperate.

18:55 She sent these text messages to Karina's

18:57 supervisor at a nonprofit where she volunteered.

19:01 What are those text messages say?

19:03 She's a succubus.

19:04 All these different things.

19:06 Succubus.

19:07 Yes.

19:07 We had to look it up.

19:08 Help me out.

19:09 It's a demon in female form who has

19:12 sex with men in their sleep to manipulate them.

19:16 I wanted Kevin to just fix the situation.

19:18 And investigators believe that's what Kevin was doing

19:21 with his mother the morning she shot him.

19:25 That was probably the final straw that he told her, "I'm out of here."

19:29 And he meant it that she would not let him walk out that door.

19:32 What do you believe happened?

19:34 Believe that Kevin was downstairs [Music] that she came

19:40 down there with the 357 and she shot him.

19:49 There were a lot of guns in that house.

19:51 Why do you think she used this one?

19:54 It's a powerful gun.

19:55 She knows the effect of it is death.

20:00 And prosecutors say just like in Palm Beach,

20:03 Linda did not immediately call 911 for help.

20:08 It shows she wanted him to die.

20:10 Kevin was close to death, but Linda waited nearly 16 minutes before dialing 911.

20:17 Phone records show her first call was to her other son, Chris.

20:22 It only became more and more apparent to us as the case

20:26 went on that in fact she was guilty of this.

20:29 Nearly 3 months after Kevin's shooting,

20:31 Linda Cooney was arrested and charged with attempted murder.

20:36 And then witness-wise,

20:38 prosecutors were more than confident about their case against her.

20:43 We have Karina, Clarita, Nurse Luna, Nurse Johnson, Nurse Hatch,

20:48 and Nurse Irvin, where Kevin makes the statements of, "My mom shot me.

20:52 I'm afraid of my mom." And then the forensic evidence and the physical evidence.

20:57 You're just bragging now.

20:58 I am.

20:59 But they still had one very big problem with their key witness, Kevin himself.

21:06 We really don't know what's going to come

21:08 out of his mouth until it actually happens.

21:10 [Music] She doesn't have any barriers that the rest of us have.

21:26 Nobody knows how far she will go.

21:28 She's probably the most controlling and manipulative

21:31 person that you could come across.

21:33 She scares me.

21:34 She scares you?

21:35 You're a prosecutor.

21:38 Yes.

21:37 4 months after a bullet was fired into Kevin Cooney's neck,

21:41 two things were clear.

21:43 Kevin would never walk again.

21:45 And the case against Linda Cooney might never fly.

21:50 Because Kevin had completely changed his story again.

21:55 He was no longer blaming his mother for shooting him.

21:59 He says his mother and him were fighting,

22:01 that he attacked his mother, and that it was an accident.

22:04 It was an accident.

22:06 Linda Cooney's attorney, Michael Becker, says none of this should be a surprise.

22:10 It's similar to the story Kevin first told police even

22:14 before he went to the hospital as he lay gravely wounded.

22:19 He believed he was dying and I believe that it was a dying declaration.

22:24 His intent was to go on the record and make sure

22:27 if he didn't survive that his mother would not be blamed.

22:31 So, why would Kevin tell all those nurses he

22:34 was afraid of his mother and she shot him?

22:37 I think that there are psychological explanations for why

22:40 he would have been blaming Linda at that time.

22:43 Kevin was upset his mother was meddling in his relationship,

22:46 but eventually Becker says Kevin came to accept responsibility for the shooting.

22:53 He basically had said,

22:55 "I was an ass and it was my fault." There have been reports

23:01 of violence in the Cooney home for years and there were numerous calls to 911.

23:07 I think that there was a duality to Kevin.

23:10 I think that away from the home he was gregarious and friendly,

23:14 but I think at home he had a lot of anger.

23:17 Remember those Facebook messages Kevin sent to his girlfriend Karina?

23:21 He said he had to be careful, but he wanted to move away from his mother.

23:26 Becker says a closer look reveals a different story.

23:31 You've got Facebook messages in print from Kevin

23:36 where he's actively fantasizing about killing his mom.

23:39 After one argument with his mother just a few weeks before the shooting,

23:43 Kevin wrote, "I wanted to kill her."

23:47 He also said that he had spit in his mother's

23:51 face and that he was about to crack.

23:54 If he is saying I could kill my mother,

23:57 doesn't that support the defense's argument that he

23:59 came at her and was trying to kill her?

24:02 Sure.

24:02 But you have to read the whole posting.

24:05 If you read the next paragraph, and this is to Karina from Kevin,

24:08 it says, "Honey, by the way, I'm just kidding."

24:12 I don't think that there's such thing

24:13 as justful conversation about killing your mother.

24:16 Becker says it was a hint of what was to come.

24:19 A violent confrontation that ended with the shooting.

24:23 His best evidence, the words of the victim,

24:26 Kevin Cooney, which could be a problem for the prosecutors.

24:31 His first statement said it was an accident.

24:37 Correct.

24:36 Why is that not in your mind the most important statement that he makes?

24:41 It's right at the time of the shooting.

24:43 That's one of the reasons we had to establish

24:45 the relationship that him and his mom had.

24:50 They insist Kevin was terrified of his mother.

24:53 Not only did Linda try to control who her sons dated,

24:56 according to prosecutors, she controlled who they spoke to.

25:01 She put a child block on my phone number.

25:03 So,

25:04 I'm sorry.

25:04 She had control of the phone.

25:07 Yes.

25:07 And she blocked your number from his phone.

25:11 Correct.

25:11 And how old was he at the time?

25:12 Pardon me.

25:14 We had just turned 30.

25:16 She had the passwords.

25:17 She was the one that could do the blocking of the texting or the phone calling.

25:21 She controlled it.

25:22 They had no control over it at all.

25:26 Does she love her kids?

25:27 Do you think?

25:28 Yes, but not appropriately.

25:31 They need to grow up, make their own decisions, have bedroom doors, be able

25:36 They don't have bedroom doors.

25:38 No.

25:39 No.

25:39 The boys bedrooms had no bedroom doors.

25:41 And I think it's telling because Michael and I call them boys.

25:44 And I don't think we do it intentionally.

25:47 They're men.

25:48 They're grown men.

25:49 And yet the way they're treated are like boys.

25:52 And prosecutors believe it's been that way

25:54 since that horrible moment when they were boys.

25:57 And Kevin saw his mother shoot his father.

26:01 Prosecutors suspect Linda convinced Kevin back then

26:04 that Jim would have killed them all had

26:06 she not shot him first and that Kevin believes he owes his mother his life.

26:13 It's been going on for so long.

26:14 The brainwashing, the manipulation,

26:16 the control has happened since they were essentially little little boys.

26:20 There has to be a psychological control that she had over them

26:23 that we as normal people don't even understand and and can't really comprehend.

26:30 But Linda's lawyer is either very perceptive or extremely creative because

26:36 he will argue Linda's parenting style could be her best defense.

26:42 If Linda is strange, isn't that why Kevin snapped?

26:47 Because he was tired of dealing with his strange mom.

26:50 And I don't deny that Linda is strange.

26:52 Or perhaps Linda is a lot strange.

26:55 But does that mean that she shot her son?

27:08 [Music] the state of Nevada plif versus Linda could be defended.

27:16 On April 8th, 2014, more than 20

27:20 years after being acquitted of murdering her ex-husband,

27:24 Linda Cooney is back in court.

27:27 You all right for the jury?

27:28 This time for the attempted murder of her son Kevin,

27:32 who was shot and left partially paralyzed.

27:37 Linda Cooney, the woman sitting right over there,

27:40 will use fear, intimidation, manipulation, control.

27:45 Prosecutor Michael Stoddher opens the state's case.

27:49 And one of the things that you'll hear

27:50 that Linda Cooney wants is exclusive control of her children.

27:54 The state would do everything possible to make you not like Linda Cooney.

27:58 But defense attorney Michael Becker argues Linda

28:01 Cooney is not the mother of the year, but she would never try to kill her son.

28:07 Kevin was to blame for his own injuries.

28:11 The state calls Christopher Cooney.

28:13 He's 30 years old.

28:15 Kevin's brother, Linda's younger son.

28:18 Under oath, he will have to detail what he and his mother

28:22 talked about on the phone just minutes after the shooting.

28:26 I was trying to ask the questions like, "Where is he hit?

28:30 What the hell happened?" And I couldn't I couldn't get a response from her.

28:40 [Music] He was finishing his shift as a police

28:46 officer when his mother called him instead of 911.

28:51 Their conversation lasted nearly 16 minutes and all the while Kevin lay dying.

28:59 Prosecutors hope to show the jury that Linda delayed calling 911,

29:04 but they say Chris was determined to put all the blame on his brother.

29:10 If Kevin was upset or depressed because of whatever relationship woe he had,

29:14 he would certainly carry it out on us.

29:18 Chris described his brother as hostile and violent

29:21 with a history of losing his temper at home.

29:25 And then Chris testified that before trial began,

29:28 his mother told him exactly what happened right before the shooting.

29:33 He was in a full-blown rage and uh he struck her.

29:39 She did say that Kevin was threatening to kill her.

29:43 According to Chris, the loaded 357 was always

29:46 kept on the living room floor for home protection.

29:51 Chris says his mother told him she believed Kevin was going for the gun,

29:55 so she grabbed it first and ran for the door.

29:58 And that's when Kevin pried it from her.

30:02 The next thing she knew was bang.

30:08 and Kevin went down.

30:12 Linda claimed she never even pointed the gun

30:14 at Kevin and she did not fire it that morning.

30:18 I don't buy that Linda shot her son.

30:20 I don't think there's any motive.

30:21 Well, the argument was he was going to move out.

30:24 She didn't want to lose him and it was the old if if I can't have him,

30:28 nobody can have him motive.

30:29 I suppose that that may work in the movie theater.

30:32 I I find it hard to believe.

30:34 Becker is hoping the jury feels the same way when they hear from Kevin himself.

30:40 Mr.

30:40 Cooney, can you hear me?

30:43 Yes.

30:42 Kevin first testified from his hospital bed.

30:45 Remember when you listen to him that he's a witness for the prosecution.

30:50 I was just in a rage.

30:52 I was just so angry that night.

30:55 As his mother looks on, Kevin takes all the blame for the shooting.

31:00 I just beat the out of her.

31:02 I beat her up.

31:04 I told her as a jury.

31:06 I'm sorry, man.

31:08 I'm sorry.

31:12 Prosecutors have told the jury Linda needs to control her sons.

31:17 But Kevin says he was in control in the house, not his mother.

31:21 I tell mom what to do.

31:23 Mom's the kid in this relationship, not me.

31:27 Mom does what I say or else mom gets a fist.

31:30 That's the way it works.

31:34 He is wanting to make it so much better for his mom that what does he do?

31:39 He goes to the extreme to try to get

31:42 the jury to believe that he's this monster man.

31:45 Show me with your hand the exact position of the gun.

31:50 This right here.

31:51 Look at how Kevin demonstrates how he held the gun.

31:55 Prosecutors say if he held it that way,

31:58 the gun would have been fired at an upward angle.

32:01 But the state's medical expert says the bullet was fired at a downward angle.

32:07 It was slightly downward and slightly to the left.

32:10 In all, the state called 26 witnesses, including nurses,

32:15 who testified that Kevin was afraid of his mother.

32:18 "Do you don't want to see your mother

32:19 anymore?" was the first question I asked him, and he said, "No." He said,

32:22 "Because she shot me." And prosecutors were allowed

32:26 to tell the jury that Linda was acquitted of murdering

32:29 her ex-husband more than 20 years ago

32:32 and that the same gun was used to shoot Kevin.

32:37 State calls Clarina Kendall to the stand.

32:40 But the state saved their most critical witness for the last day.

32:45 He had something he had to tell me that he felt was very urgent.

32:49 Kevin's ex-girlfriend, Clarita Kendall,

32:52 testified that she visited Kevin and he told her what happened when he was shot.

32:58 Does he indicate at any time that she picked up or had a gun in her hand?

33:03 It was in her waistband.

33:05 He says he started arguing with his mom and was sitting on the couch.

33:09 Kevin never said it was an accident.

33:11 Instead, Clarita testified that Kevin told her he was sitting down when he was

33:17 shot and that could explain why the bullet was fired at a downward angle.

33:23 What did you think when you heard that?

33:25 I said, "Bingo.

33:27 That's the story." And it matches the physical evidence.

33:30 I don't believe it.

33:31 But what matters is, will the jury believe it?

33:35 Next witness.

33:37 Becker has a way to counter Clarita's testimony,

33:40 and it's not what anyone expected.

33:43 You solemnly swear the testimony you're about to give this, the truth,

33:46 the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

33:50 Yes.

33:49 Kevin Cooney is called to testify in person, this time as a defense witness.

33:56 Were you expecting Kevin to come back as a No.

34:02 This has got to be the first time I've ever seen

34:04 a prosecution witness become a defense witness within a couple of days.

34:09 No, it was completely unexpected.

34:11 [Music]

34:14 It was just like years ago when Kevin testified at his mother's murder trial.

34:20 And now he could save her again.

34:24 She got a hold of that gun.

34:27 I got a hold of it and I uh I jerked it up away from her.

34:32 Which way was this gun pointed when it was fired?

34:35 Down.

34:37 Downward.

34:36 Do you remember testifying Monday that it was pointed upwards?

34:42 No.

34:41 Prosecutors, it was clear that Kevin had

34:44 changed his testimony to protect his mother.

34:47 Your hopes of being released from the hospital.

34:49 Do you also hope that your mom will be there to take care of you?

34:53 She can't possibly take care of me.

34:55 You want her there though, don't you?

34:58 You know, I don't know how my mom feels about me at this point.

35:01 What if she still loves you?

35:02 Would you want her around?

35:06 I certainly would like her around.

35:07 Yeah.

35:08 Is that why the angle of the trajectory

35:10 has somehow changed from Monday to Friday?

35:16 What?

35:15 He loves his mother that much.

35:17 He wants her back, which is his bias on that stand.

35:20 Linda Cooney never testified.

35:23 So, jurors had only Kevin's firthand version or versions of what happened.

35:29 Which side does he help?

35:31 In closing arguments, both sides want the jury to believe Kevin.

35:38 Somebody when dying will speak the truth.

35:41 That's what Kevin was doing when he said it was an accident.

35:46 When he wakes up, his first conscious words are what?

35:49 I'm afraid of mom.

35:51 No, mom.

35:52 She shot me.

35:54 In the last few hours of this trial, the lawyers have to define Linda Cooney.

35:59 Is she a victim?

36:00 As the defense says, Linda had injuries that were inconsistent

36:06 with anything other than having been attacked.

36:09 She controlled the phone.

36:11 They had no bedroom doors.

36:14 Or is she a controlling, possessive,

36:16 vindictive mother who would do anything to dominate her children,

36:21 even at their own expense?

36:24 She's not going to lose Kevin to that succubus.

36:26 Nobody is going to have him if she can't keep him.

36:44 I got the call and I just looked at him and I'm like, "We have a verdict."

36:50 It was just like the Florida case 21 years earlier.

36:55 The jury came back with a verdict in Linda

36:57 Cooney's latest trial in less than a day.

37:01 Way less.

37:02 I was shocked at at roughly an hour.

37:05 You may be seated.

37:06 In fact, the jurors spent about as much

37:08 time eating lunch as they did deliberating.

37:12 Has the jury reached a verdict?

37:13 Yes, it has.

37:14 Neither side knew what to expect.

37:16 The verdict would likely depend on which version of Kevin Cooney's story

37:22 the jury would believe.

37:23 Right up about here.

37:26 The clerk will now read the words aloud.

37:28 We the jury find the defendant Linda Cooney guilty of attempt murder.

37:33 Guilty.

37:34 The jury did not believe Kevin when he said he shot himself by accident.

37:40 And there were a number of other charges against Linda Cooney.

37:44 The jury found her guilty of battery with a deadly weapon,

37:49 guilty of intimidating Kevin before he testified,

37:53 and guilty of stalking Kevin's girlfriend, Karina Taylor.

38:00 Linda's attorney says he knows exactly when he lost the case.

38:04 I knew going into the case that when the jury heard about Florida 20 years

38:10 ago that that was going to be the single most devastating blow to the defense.

38:15 My hunch is that the jurors probably felt that whatever happened in Florida,

38:21 she must have gotten away with something.

38:27 Nearly 3 months later, Linda went back to court for her sentencing.

38:32 The other women in Kevin's life, Karina and Clarita,

38:35 were also there, and so was Linda's son, Chris.

38:40 Dr.

38:40 Fun, if you come to the witness stand, please be sworn.

38:43 Jim Cooney's brother, Bob,

38:45 was there to remind the judge of everything he says Linda did to his family.

38:51 Linda subjected my family to harassment, threats, injuries, and death.

38:56 and he warned the judge that his nephew Kevin

38:59 could still be in danger if Linda is ever released.

39:04 Imagine the potential ongoing abuse that Kevin might be

39:07 subjected to inherent with visits from his mommy dearest.

39:13 Kevin didn't come to the sentencing,

39:15 but he sent this note defending his mother saying,

39:18 "My mother has been wrongly accused and convicted of crimes she did not commit.

39:24 It was by my own actions that I find myself in my present condition.

39:30 My mother is unjustly incarcerated.

39:35 And then at last, Linda spoke.

39:39 I was a battered wife.

39:41 My sons were battered as well.

39:43 I have done my best to raise, educate, and protect my sons as a single mother.

39:49 But Linda blamed it all on Kevin.

39:52 Unfortunately, my son Kevin carried with him an anger

39:56 and rage disorder that he must have inherited from his father.

40:00 Yet, I always protected, defended, and loved my son,

40:04 and I would never have intentionally harmed him.

40:09 What happened was his fault.

40:12 It was an accident.

40:14 Please have mercy on me, your honor.

40:16 Clearly, prosecutors don't have mercy in mind.

40:20 This woman is a clear and present danger

40:22 to everyone in society and anyone that crosses her path.

40:26 If there was a woman who was deserving

40:28 of the maximum sentence on all charges, this woman is it.

40:32 The judge didn't go that far.

40:34 She sentenced Linda Cooney to 13 to 40 years in prison.

40:40 You think that even with her in prison conceivably for the rest of her life,

40:44 they'll still be tied to her?

40:46 One would hope that they could they could

40:48 break off and and live their own lives.

40:50 Whether it can happen or not with her, I don't know.

40:53 Do you still think about your nephews who you haven't seen,

40:58 I guess, since that trial?

41:00 Yes, I think about them all the time.

41:02 Bob Cooney would like to help his nephews and wants to be sure

41:06 Kevin gets the medical care he'll need for the rest of his life.

41:12 My brother would have done it.

41:13 I hope there's some things that I can do to help this story.

41:20 It's not going to have a happy ending,

41:23 but maybe I can make it a little bit happier than it might be otherwise.

41:30 [Music]