Stand Your Ground hearing held for woman accused of killing husband

OVIEDO, Fla. — The same judge overseeing the case involving George Zimmerman also heard another case on Wednesday that involved Florida’s "stand your ground" law.

Zimmerman is accused of shooting and killing Trayvon Martin in Sanford in February. He claims it was a case of self-defense, and Judge Kenneth Lester is overseeing the case.

On Wednesday, it was announced Lester would not recuse himself from the case. Later, he was back in the courtroom, hearing the case of 43-year-old Anita Smithey, who claims she shot her husband while he was raping her in their Oviedo home on May 4, 2010.

Smithey, a mother of two, met 41-year-old Robert Cline in 2005.  She said as soon as they got married in 2007, her husband became abusive and controlling, even telling her what underwear she was to wear to work.  She said he was also obsessed with sex.

“I didn't like it when he would force me to have sex,” Smithey said.

“What do you mean, forced you to have sex?” the attorney asked.

“I would tell him no, and he did it anyway,” she replied.

Smithey said she'd had enough and filed for divorce in 2010, then moved into an Oviedo home with her two young children.

One day, she said Cline showed up unannounced and she agreed to have sex with him because she was afraid not to. But when she asked him to leave, Smithey claims Cline pulled a knife on her and raped her.

“I was just begging him to stop,” she said. “I was just, I was just saying, ‘Get off, get off. Stop, please stop. Stop, it hurts.”

But prosecutors said there's no evidence to support that Smithey tried to get away.

“Robert Cline's aspirating blood from being shot in the lung are because you scratched his back?” the prosecutor said.

Smithey eventually shot Cline with a gun she had hidden underneath her pillow.

“I shot him in the chest in self-defense,” she said.

“But the ultimate shot that kills him, you are saying on this stand, is a shot that you don't even remember firing from that gun, correct?” the prosecutor replied.

“I don't know,” said Smithey.

Smithey claims Cline also stabbed her at some point, but she didn't notice until she ran to a neighbor’s house to call 911 because she couldn't find her phone.

When testimony wraps, Lester will decide whether to toss the case or send it to trial.

WFTV