Fort Thomas wife and mother Cheryl McCafferty is guilty of killing her husband by shooting him in the head as he lay in the couple’s bed, a Campbell County jury decided Monday evening.
McCafferty was found guilty of first degree manslaughter. She is scheduled to be sentenced by Campbell Circuit Judge Julie Reinhardt Ward at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Jurors deliberated for less than four hours. They could have found McCafferty guilty of murder, first degree manslaughter, second degree manslaughter, reckless homicide or not guilty.
Jurors began deliberations shortly before 3 p.m. after closing arguments. They had dinner and announced they had reached a verdict at 6:23 p.m.
The 44-year-old McCafferty had claimed she shot her husband, Robert, because she feared for her life and the safety of their children.
The June 25, 2007 killing sent shock waves through the Fort Thomas community.
Robert McCafferty, 44, was shot once in the head as he slept in the couple’s bed in the master bedroom of the family's home on Madonna Place.
Fort Thomas police said they were sent to the home after a woman called 911 around 8:15 a.m. saying "my husband was trying to kill me and I killed him."
Prosecutors said Cheryl McCafferty was $50,000 in debt on credit cards and allegedly forged her husband's checks before the deadly shooting.
Jury has been asked to return Tuesday morning at 9:30 a.m. for sentencing. Cheryl faces 5-20 years in prison.
Prosecutors said that McCafferty was obsessed with starting a modeling career for her daughter against her husband's wishes. That obsession may have helped fuel the mounting credit card debt that according to testimony climbed $30,000 over seven months.
Prosecutors also said they found evidence on McCafferty's computer that she had done extensive research on the case of Amy Bosley, another Campbell County wife who pleaded guilty to shooting her husband to death as he slept in 2005.
Deanna Dennison, the attorney who defended Cheryl, sought to build a case of self defense as she outlined what she said was violence against the woman at the hands of her husband that had grown "increasingly worse" over the last two years.
In testimony Cheryl McCafferty said Robert had pistol whipped her the night before the shooting, thrown her into a closet and shot at her and then held a gun to her head during the night time hours just before the early morning shooting.
"You need to die," Cheryl testified her husband had told her or else he would kill the kids.
In what she described as a "night of terror," Cheryl testified she slipped the gun that her sleeping husband held to her side away from him and eased it out from under the covers and then shot him as he moved up towards her.
"I shot him. I didn't aim. I didn't mean it. I didn't plan it. All I knew (was) I had to stop him," she testified.
