Sobbing wife who shot 11 times (but was found not guilty of murder) turns herself in to court on weapons charges

The wife who killed her husband by shooting him in cold blood was seen sobbing and popping pills as she turned herself into authorities Wednesday.
Though she was found not guilty of the murder of her husband Raymond after claiming self defence, Barbara Sheehan was charged with the unlawful possession of a weapon.
The charge is the far lesser of the two she faced after she admitted to killing her husband Raymond, though she said it was in self defence. 
Sheehan turned herself into a court in Queens, New York, this afternoon, though she did not seem quite at ease as she was photographed sobbing popping some pills on her way into the building.
Her lawyer Michael Dowd said that the pills were prescribed to the school secretary to help her bad heart and anxiety.
'Barbara has high blood pressure and anxiety disorder. Health issues from the 17 years and the three years awaiting for this trial to end,' Mr Dowd said. 'We have ordered to have medical attention for her immediately.'
The storied trial of Sheehan grabbed headlines because of the gory and dramatic nature of the case, where she and her two grown children painted her husband Raymond as an aggressive abuser and she as the victim.
She was acquitted of Raymond's murder, though now, if minimum sentencing requirements for the weapons charge are followed, she will face a minimum of two and a half years in prison.
Her legal team is hoping for an extension to meet her $1million bail payment, and are also looking into appeal procedures for the weapons charge.
Wednesday's proceedings were some of the final steps to closing a long case.
Sheehan says she shot her 49-year-old husband of 24 years, Raymond, 11 times after suffering decades of physical and verbal abuse.
He allegedly pointed a 9mm Glock at her and she shot him with a .38-calibre revolver.
She says he threatened to kill her and he meant it. But prosecutors said she was not abused and was angry over her husband's infidelities.
In the end, she was acquitted of the murder charges. At that time, her supporters cheered as the verdict was read, with many dressed in purple to support domestic violence victims. But Sheehan will be jailed for between two and a half to 15 years for the weapon charge.
Authorities say she fired 11 times while her husband, a former New York City police sergeant, was shaving in the bathroom.
Court documents said Sheehan told police the night of the incident: ‘I shot him! I shot him! I think he's dead. He's in the bathroom.’
Legal experts said the case is a test of the battered-woman defence.
This is when the history of abuse is explored to explain a woman's mental state at the time she is accused of committing a crime.
The issue is self-defence, which under New York state law justifies the use of lethal force in response to an immediate threat to life.
Under the battered-woman defence, lethal force can sometimes be justified even if the threat may not appear immediate.
Sheehan testified her husband smashed her head against a cinder-block wall when they were on holiday in 2007, reported the New York Times.
On the day of the killing in February 2008 he allegedly threw boiling pasta sauce at her and punched her in the face.
‘She acted out of defence,’ her daughter Jennifer Joyce said. ‘There were no other options. He was pointing a gun to her head.’
Prosecutors said there were other reasons Sheehan killed her husband. She was allegedly furious over his infidelity and sexual habits such as wearing nappies and women's clothes.
They also said she would benefit from life insurance policies - but Sheehan's son Ray disputed this.
‘I don't think people understand how bad it was at home,’ he said.
‘I don't think they understand how my father threatened to kill us and how if we told anybody about what he was doing that he'd kill us too.