Mother, 64, shot and paralyzed son, 32, with the same gun she used to kill her ex-husband 20 years ago

Linda Cooney was acquitted after claiming she shot her ex-husband, James Cooney, in 1992 in self defense as he came at her with a knife

In 2011, she shot her son Kevin in the neck with the same gun, also claiming that he was attacking her as they argued about his girlfriend

Kevin, who is partially paralyzed by the injury, has been less cooperative with prosecutors ever since speaking with his mother

A hearing will be held this Friday to determine if details about the 1992 killing can be brought up in this trial



Arrest: Linda Cooney shot her adult son nearly 20 years after she shot dead her ex-husband

A mother who was acquitted after shooting her ex-husband dead 20 years ago is now facing charges for shooting her adult son and paralyzing him - with the same gun.

Linda Cooney, 64, was cleared in the death of James Cooney on February 7, 1992 amid a bitter divorce battle after she claimed she had shot him in self defense when he came at her with a knife.

Then in June 2011, she shot her son Kevin, 32, in the neck in Las Vegas with the same .357 Magnum after an argument about his girlfriend, whom Linda Cooney had been accused of stalking.

Again, Cooney, a former legal secretary, claimed she shot out of self defense after her 6ft 9 inch son, a bouncer at a local club, had attacked her during the argument.

Attorneys are now discussing whether or not a jury in the newest case against Linda Conney should know about her acquittal; her defense team argues it is not necessary as she was found not guilty.

A hearing will be held on Friday to determine the decision.

Interestingly, Kevin Cooney's testimony when he was just 11 years old had been key to his mother's acquittal, the prosecutor in the case, Peter Magrino, told the Sun Sentinel.

He had initially told police that his father's hands were empty when he saw him killed on the floor, but in the 1993 trial in Palm Beach, Florida he said that his father may have been holding something.



Injured: She claimed her son Kevin, pictured, had tried to attack her so she shot him in self defense. He has become less cooperative with prosecutors since speaking with his mother, they said

Charges: Linda Cooney, charged with murder in her ex-husband's death, is taken into court Tuesday. When the hearing continues Monday, Cooney's attorney, Richard Lubin, will ask Circuit Judge Marvin Mounts Jr. to release Cooney without bond

'Unfortunately, the children were at such a young age and had been so traumatized, it presented the prosecution with a problem in terms of the inconsistency of their statements,' Magrino said.



Las Vegas prosecutors are concerned the son could again testify positively for his mother, who has been speaking to him via his brother's cell phone from hospital, authorities say.

The argument that led to the shooting came after years of tension over Kevin Cooney's girlfriend, Karina Taylor, whom he met in 2009 but did not tell his mother.

Taylor told authorities his friends had said she should avoid meeting Linda Cooney because she was 'crazy and it would cause nothing but problems'.

And when Cooney did finally meet Taylor, she was against the relationship - and allegedly sent her a series of texts calling her a 'stripper,' 'w****,' 'prostitute' and 'skank'.



She also reached told a non-profit cancer organization where Taylor volunteered and said that she was laundering money and dealing drugs, prosecutors said.

Home: They argued over Kevin's girlfriend, whom Linda had allegedly called a 'skank' and 'w****'

Prosecutors added that Taylor was genuinely fearful of Cooney, and this led to the argument on June 28, 2011.

Police received two calls alerting them to the scene - one from Cooney and one from Kevin's younger brother, Chris, a Las Vegas police officer.

But the calls came after a 15-minute call between Cooney and Chris. By this point, Kevin had been shot and reportedly told his brother he could not feel his legs.



When Chris called police, he said that his brother had attacked his mother and that she had shot him, and Linda Cooney called police to say her son had been shot in the neck.

Cooney refused to answer about who was responsible for shooting her son, although at one point said: 'The gun, it's my fault, it's my fault.'

When police arrived, Kevin was lying down with a cloth pressed to the right side of his neck and when they asked him who had shot him, he refused to say - and kept calling it an accident.



In November 2011, Chris visited his brother at the hospital and allowed his mother to talk to his brother on his cell phone - and Kevin has since been less cooperative with prosecutors.