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VISTA, Calif. - A Carlsbad mother of three testified Monday in the murder trial of her schoolteacher-husband’s shooting death.

Julie Elizabeth Harper, 41, is charged with murdering her husband in their Carlsbad home and waiting a day and a half before turning herself in.

Her defense attorney said she shot 39-year-old Jason Harper on August 7, 2012 in self-defense after suffering an abuse relationship.

Prosecutors said Julie Harper of Carlsbad is a cold blooded killer but Monday in court she took the stand in her defense, describing an emotionally and physically abusive husband who she claims to have shot and killed in self-defense.

Harper recalled the emotional abuse began after she gained 50 pounds during her first pregnancy.

“And I said but I’m pregnant it’s normal to gain weight when you’re pregnant and he said yeah but it’s just not that you have a belly. You’re fat all over, even your arms have cellulite,” said the 41-year-old woman in an attempt to build her defense.

The Carlsbad mother is accused of shooting and killing her husband Jason, a math teacher at Carlsbad High School, inside their home back in 2012.

To help her case, she showed a recording of her husband enraged over the family’s finances.

“I want you to pay $3,000,” said the deceased in the video.

The defendant claimed the abuse wasn’t just emotional and psychological as she also talked about how she was forced to have sex by her husband.

“Slamming me up against the wall, face first and forcibly -- I said stop, stop, stop and he didn’t stop,” she recalled.

Harper will continue her testimony Tuesday.

If convicted of first-degree murder, she could be sentenced 50 years to life in prison.