Palm Beach socialite Linda Cooney ex-husband’s death, Few things you need to know

Palm Beach socialite Linda Cooney charged for the murder of her ex-husband Kevin Cooney: 2020 Updates

Almost 10 years after that interview, Linda Cooney admitted that she was involved in the shooting which she was sentenced to 13 to 40 years in prison, and her lover Kevin was partially paralyzed and still on wheel chair.

Fast Forward On March 29, 30 2017 – Culled From Palmbeachpost.com

The Nevada Supreme Court has overturned the attempted-murder conviction of former Palm Beacher Linda Cooney, finding the Las Vegas jury that convicted her in 2014 of shooting her son should not have been told that she had been charged — and acquitted — of shooting her ex-husband in Juno Beach in 1992.

In a five-page ruling handed down on March 21, the court found that testimony about the 1992 shooting death of attorney James Cooney was “unquestionably unfairly prejudicial to Linda’s case.”

Cooney had been charged with her ex-husband’s murder but a jury found she fired in self-defense after her 11-year-old son, Kevin, told jurors he saw his father holding something shiny in his hand when his mother shot him.

Twenty-one years later, Linda Cooney, now 69, shot that same son, Kevin, with that same gun. As in her Palm Beach County trial, her attorneys in Las Vegas argued self-defense: The gun discharged as Kevin attacked her during an argument over his girlfriend.

Although Kevin was paralyzed by the shot, he testified in his mother’s defense. Still, a jury convicted her of attempted murder in 2014 and she was sentenced to 13 to 41 years in prison.

Decades earlier, the trial of Linda Cooney in Palm Beach County dominated the news. Linda Cooney’s ex-husband, James Cooney, was a prominent attorney from a respected, long-time Palm Beach family of doctors and lawyers. The shooting followed a bitter divorce four years earlier.

Linda Cooney claimed she suffered years of physical abuse, which continued after the divorce. However, she never complained about abuse during the divorce and never sought an injunction.

In a statement after the shooting, she said her ex-husband threatened her with a knife as he picked up the boys for visitation. Police found an 8½-inch knife in Cooney’s right hand and his car keys nearby.

Kevin, who clutched an action figure as he testified, said he saw something with a “glarey shine” in his father’s hand but couldn’t tell if it was a set of keys or a knife. A forensic expert testified that gunpowder on Cooney’s palms indicated his hands were open when he was shot and the knife likely was placed in his hand afterward.

After the shooting, Kevin called 911. Linda Cooney tried to call her attorney while Kevin talked to the 911 operator. When she realized Kevin had made the call, she spoke briefly to the 911 operator, then hung up.

Linda Cooney did not testify at her trial. The jury deliberated two hours before finding her not guilty.

After that trial, she moved to Las Vegas with her sons and severed all ties with her husband’s family.

The three years she has been in prison is the longest she has been separated from her sons since she killed their father.

In June 2011, Las Vegas police responded to a 911 call of an attempted suicide. Linda gave conflicting stories about shooting Kevin and she eventually was charged with attempted murder. This time, the jury found her guilty.

At her sentencing in July 2014, she again portrayed herself as a victim and complained that the jury should not have learned about the 1992 case. She said she always loved, protected and defended Kevin and would never have intentionally harmed him.

“I instilled in them that a good man is one who is strong enough to be gentle,” she said at her sentencing. “Unfortunately, my son Kevin carried with him an anger and rage he must have inherited from his father.”

Despite the recent ruling, the case is not over. The Supreme Court ordered the case be sent back for another trial. While she waits, she could be free on bond or house arrest.