A woman who was found not guilty of murdering her husband in Palm Beach County 22 years ago has now been convicted of trying to kill her son in Las Vegas, prosecutors there said Wednesday.

Linda Cooney, 64, faces between three and 65 years in prison when she is sentenced June 23 after being convicted of attempted murder, battery with a deadly weapon, intimidating a witness and stalking, said Michael Staudaher, chief deputy district attorney for Clark County, Nev.

The victim, her son Kevin, was a prominent witness for the defense when his mother was on trial for killing his father on Feb. 7, 1992. Kevin Cooney was 11 years old at the time, and he told a Palm Beach County jury that his fatally wounded father may have had something in his hand when he was shot.

He had earlier told investigators there was nothing in his father's hand.

His testimony bolstered his mother's claim that she shot her ex-husband, tax attorney James Cooney, in self-defense when he came at her with a knife.

The Las Vegas jury was told about the earlier case, but not about Kevin Cooney's testimony.

After the 1993 trial, Linda Cooney and her two sons moved to Las Vegas. Staudaher said that on June 28, 2011, she shot Kevin with the same gun she used to kill her ex-husband nearly two decades earlier.

Again, Cooney claimed self-defense — and again, her son Kevin took the stand to back up her claim.

"He said he attacked her, brutally beat her, punched her in the head, threw her down on the floor," Staudaher said. "It was the opposite of what he'd told countless medical personnel and his girlfriend about what had happened."

Prosecuting a case when the victim is effectively testifying for the defense presented Staudaher with a unique challenge. He said he had to show the jury that his own witness was making up a story to protect his mother.

"She had one single fresh bruise on her body," Staudaher said. "She had no injuries to support what her son claimed happened to her. The one bruise she did have was on her upper right breast and was consistent with the recoil of the gun hitting her in the chest after it was fired."

The jury decided on Tuesday, after a two-week trial, that the evidence supported Staudaher's version of what took place.

Cooney's lawyer, Michael Becker, said it was a mistake for the judge to allow the Las Vegas jury to hear about the Palm Beach case, even though she was acquitted. "I do think the Palm Beach case came back to haunt her," he said. "I think that's what made this case very difficult for us. The jury may have had the impression that she 'got away' with something before."

He intends to appeal the verdict.

According to Las Vegas court records, Linda Cooney opposed her son's relationship with a woman named Karina Taylor, a mixed martial arts fighter he met in 2009. Text messages from her phone calling Taylor a "stripper," a "whore," "prostitute," "skank" and "succubus" were introduced as evidence in support of the stalking charge. Staudaher also told jurors that Cooney called a cancer charity where Taylor volunteered and accused Taylor of laundering money and dealing drugs.

Tension over Taylor's relationship with Kevin Cooney led to the shooting, Staudaher said. According to previous court records, Kevin's brother, Gary, a Las Vegas police officer, was the first to call 911 to report the shooting, claiming Kevin attacked his mother.

Linda Cooney called shortly afterward, telling the 911 dispatcher that her son had been shot but not saying who shot him.

Five months after the shooting, Gary Cooney visited his brother in the hospital and used his cellphone to allow their mother to talk to him, according to prosecutors. Afterward, Kevin Cooney stopped cooperating with law enforcement. That led to the witness intimidation charge.

"We didn't know what he was going to say until we put him on the stand," Staudaher said. "When he testified, what he said did not match the physical evidence. The jury apparently believed the physical evidence."

The Las Vegas jury's verdict was greeted with satisfaction even by some who supported Linda Cooney in the 1990s.

"I think Linda would let you into her world as long as you pledged allegiance to her. If you crossed her, you would then see a amazingly evil person throw down on you with revenge," said Bruce Simpson, a former neighbor in Palm Beach who said he once sheltered her and her sons when she accused her husband of abuse.

Simpson, who now lives in Costa Rica, said in an email Wednesday that he no longer believes in her innocence.

"I hope they finally put her away," he said. "At one time we felt sorry for her and hid her and her boys at our house believing her stories of abuse. I think we were duped just like so many others."

raolmeda@tribune.com, 954-356-4457, Twitter @SSCourts