BY STEVE KEMME
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HAMILTON -- A Butler County jury late Friday convicted Sherry Mariana, who said she fatally shot her boyfriend, of involuntary manslaughter instead of murder.
After deliberating for 10 hours, the Butler County Common Pleas jury cleared her of the murder charge and found her guilty of the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter in commission of menacing. She faces a prison term of four to eight years, including a mandatory three years for committing a crime with a gun.
If she had been convicted of murder, she could have faced a life sentence.
Judge Matthew Crehan will sentence Ms. Mariana Sept. 1.
Ms. Mariana, 36, was charged with killing Herman Colwell Jr., 27, of Monroe in her Hamilton house Dec. 21. Mr. Colwell was shot below the right eye while he talked on the telephone to his mother. The verdict only partially satisfied Mr. Colwell's family and friends.
"We wanted a murder conviction," said Lucy Colwell, Mr. Colwell's mother. "Maybe by the time she gets out of jail she won't kill anybody else."
Defense attorney Clayton Napier had hoped for acquittal, arguing that Ms. Mariana shot Mr. Colwell accidentally and suffers from battered women's syndrome. But he was relieved that she escaped the murder conviction.
"It was a gut-wrenching trial," he said. "I hope now that both families can have a chance to heal."
Jurors declined to comment.
Mr. Colwell, who had taken cocaine and amphetamines, had verbally, physically and sexually abused Ms. Mariana in the hours before the shooting, Mr. Napier said in closing arguments.
She shot Mr. Colwell after he punched out two windows in Ms. Mariana's car because she did not come home immediately after her shift at a Hamilton bar, Mr. Napier said.
She grabbed a 12-gauge shotgun and confronted him, but she had no intention of shooting Mr. Colwell, her lawyer said.
Ms. Mariana has suffered severe physical abuse from a series of men, starting with her father and brothers, according to testimony.
Battered women's syndrome caused her to think her life was in danger the night she shot Mr. Colwell, Mr. Napier said.
Two psychologists testified that they believed she had been beaten by men throughout her life, but they disagreed over whether she suffers from battered women's syndrome.
Assistant Prosecutor Pat Moeller said there was no evidence that Mr. Colwell raped or beat Ms. Mariana.
