ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — An Ocoee woman said she had been beaten for years and was only trying to defend herself from her abusive boyfriend. She stabbed him to death and now she's going to prison for it.
Monday, Michelle Wheeler took a plea deal for manslaughter charges. The state wanted her to go to prison for life for second degree murder, all for an incident she says was self-defense.
The woman claimed this was a case of battered wife syndrome. She told police she had been beaten by her boyfriend for four and a half years.
Wheeler, 38, took a plea bargain with the State Attorney's Office. She was charged with second degree murder for stabbing her boyfriend, Jerry Cisco, to death last January in their Ocoee home. She told police she killed him in self defense, that he took a kitchen knife and tried to kill her. She was charged with second degree murder and has now accepted a manslaughter conviction.
"They were fighting each other. It's like domestic violence. It was pretty serious that day," neighbor Richard Howell said.
Wheeler has three children. She told police she had stayed with Cisco because of the children.
Psychotherapist Joyce Pastorek took the stand at a hearing last year and said this was a case of battered wife syndrome. WFTV's legal analyst said battered wife syndrome is a rare defense, however it is one of the more successful defenses. In order to get an acquittal, the defense attorney would have to show a pattern of abuse and rely mainly on expert testimony.
Pastorek would not talk about the Wheeler case, but said typically domestic violence victims have been beaten down emotionally and physically. The abuser's main purpose is to gain control. The National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women report as many as 90 percent of the women in jail today for killing men had been battered by those men.
"Sometimes a victim will fight back in self defense when they are in danger and exhausted all their means," Pastorek said.
Wheeler faces up to 15 years in prison. Sentencing has not been scheduled.
When Cisco died, he had been on probation for a domestic violence charge.