In July of 2017, 22-year-old Breanna Sullivan was at home with her 3-year-old daughter and was messaging her husband to come home to watch the daughter so that she could head to the shooting range. It’s an arrangement they had made earlier, but he didn’t show up on time.
When he arrived home, an argument ensued. The couple is said to have a rocky past, with allegations of the husband being verbally and physically abusive towards Sullivan.
She told the court that she bought the gun a few months before this incident, because her husband had held a knife to her throat.
Breanna Sullivan testified that Antonio Sullivan, 26, had spent most of the day with a friend and promised to be home by 5 p.m. to watch their daughter so that she could go to a shooting range with a friend. She repeatedly texted and called him when he failed to come home, she said, which angered him.
An argument broke out and quickly escalated when he got to the apartment. She grabbed her 9mm handgun — which she testified she got after he held a knife to her throat a few months before — and was attempting to leave with their daughter when he threatened her, she said.
“He took a step toward me with his arm raised and cocked,” she testified. “He said, ‘I’m going to kill you.’ There was no question in my mind that he meant it.” She then switched the safety off her gun and fired twice.Via Pilot Online
The prosecution provided evidence that suggests Sullivan fired the shot that struck her husband in the face from a distance of roughly 12 to 18 inches away, and that she was likely moving towards her husband while firing that second shot.
Years of abuse, and the severity of that abuse, were big factors in the judges’ decision to find her not guilty.
The trial lasted two days.
