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03-30-2013, 12:02 PM
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Spring Hill Wife Shot Sleeping Husband, Called 911
A Spring Hill woman who fatally shot her sleeping husband in the back of the head was sentenced to life in prison, closing a case that began when she called 911 to report the killing herself, according to court records and news accounts. Karen Lyn Biraghi, 39, told a Hernando County dispatcher, "I'm turning myself in for killing my husband," records show. Asked why, she said, "Because I have been suffering years of mental and verbal abuse and I just felt like I've reached the end." Investigators said Biraghi shot 31-year-old Alan Biraghi once in the back of the head with a .38-caliber revolver early on Dec. 24, 2011, as he slept on a couch inside the couple's home. After the shooting she drove to her parents' house and told them what she had done, then called 911 to report the shooting, according to the Hernando County Sheriff's Office. Prosecutors said the marriage had been coming apart. Alan Biraghi planned to move out two days later to live with a co-worker, and his wife had found romantic text messages on a second cellphone he kept, according to testimony. Karen Biraghi later told the court that both she and her husband had been unfaithful. A Hernando County grand jury indicted her on a charge of first-degree premeditated murder in January 2012. She entered an open guilty plea to second-degree murder the following year, according to the state attorney's office. At her sentencing, a defense psychologist testified that Biraghi had been diagnosed with several conditions, including bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder, and that she had a long history of depression and suicidal thoughts. Her lawyers pointed to physical and sexual abuse she said she endured as a child. Circuit Judge Daniel B. Merritt Jr. sentenced Biraghi to life in prison on March 28, 2013. The recording of her 911 call, taken by a dispatcher in training before a supervising dispatcher took over, was later released among records in the case.
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