Mother, 66, is sentenced to 41 years in prison after she shot and paralyzed son 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 was left partially paralyzed by the injury, defended his mother throughout the case - although other witnesses pinned blame on her



In April she was found guilty of attempted murder and on Wednesday, she was sentenced to 13 to 41 years in prison



A mother who was acquitted of killing her ex-husband 20 years ago has been sentenced to up to 41 years for shooting and paralyzing her adult son with the same gun.

Linda Cooney, 66, was found guilty in April of attempted murder, battery with a deadly weapon and intimidating a witness for the June 2011 attack on her son, Kevin, in their Las Vegas home.



On Wednesday, she cried as she was sentenced to 13 to 41 years in prison and told the judge that she had been wrongfully convicted, the Las Vegas Review Journal reported.



It comes more than two decades after she was cleared in the death of her former husband James Cooney on February 7, 1992 amid a bitter divorce battle. She claimed she had shot him in self defense when he came at her with a knife.

Scroll down for video



Heading to prison: Linda Cooney reacts as she is sentenced to 13 to 41 years in prison for shooting her son



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. RELATED ARTICLES Previous

1

Next Mom suffocated her toddler son because she 'didn't want him... Prostitute 'injected married Google executive with a lethal... Share this article Share In 2011, she shot Kevin 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. And again - he defended his mother. Paralyzed: Kevin Cooney, who was shot in the neck, testified in court (pictured) that he was to blame

In court: Chris Cooney, another son of Cooney, listens as his mother is sentenced to prison on Wednesday

Testifying from a motorized chair, he said that she had shot him after he attacked her. He said that he blamed himself for the incident.



Denial: Cooney said that she had killed her ex-husband James, pictured, in 1992 in self defense

But his testimony was at odds with other statements made in the court; an ex-girlfriend testified that he told her his mother shot him as he sat on the couch.



The argument that led to the 2011 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 contacted a non-profit cancer organization where Taylor volunteered and said that she was laundering money and dealing drugs, prosecutors said.

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.

Freed: Her son testified in the 90s that he might have seen his father with a knife and Cooney was freed

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

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.