CROWN POINT, Ind. — A judge has freed a woman from custody after a jury found her not responsible by reason of insanity in the fatal shooting her abusive husband.

Judge Thomas Stefaniak Jr. ruled that Jerri Finnearty, 43, was not a danger to the community or gravely disabled.

“She’s already served her prison sentence,” Stefaniak said.

The judge denied a motion by deputy prosecutor Mary Ryan to have Finnearty taken into custody so doctors could evaluate whether she was a danger to society.

“To place Jerri Finnearty in custody would be nothing more than to punish her, which the jury said we should not do,” Stefaniak said.

The jury deliberated less than five hours before reaching its verdict.

Finnearty had been free on $5,000 bond since May 2006.

Michael Finnearty, 41, died from a single gunshot to the head on Jan. 23, 2006, while he slept in the couple’s home in Calumet Township, just south of Gary.
Jerri Finnearty was terrified that her husband of 19 years would kill her, said defense attorney Steven Mullins.

He said his client suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his physical and emotional abuse, and that she acted in self-defense.

During the week-and-a-half long trial, Jerri Finnearty testified about years of abuse that her husband inflicted on her and their five children. She said her husband once held a .38-caliber revolver to her head for hours and told her the only way she would leave was “6 feet under.”

Finnearty said her husband’s girlfriend lived in a trailer in the couple’s driveway, and she had to babysit the young son he had had with the woman.

Ryan, however, argued no police or medical records supported Jerri Finnearty’s claims.

During closing arguments, the prosecutor pointed to inconsistencies among what Jerri Finnearty and four of her five children told medical experts, police, the jury and a magistrate during her bail hearing in May 2006.

“They told outright lie after outright lie,” she said.

Jurors also had the option of convicting or acquitting Finnearty of murder or voluntary manslaughter.