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WATERFORD, Mich. (FOX 2) - Fifty-one-year-old Tina Talbot hoped she would be given probation in the killing of her husband.
She told the court she had no other choice: it was either him, or her and their special needs son. A tearful Talbot detailed the abuse she allegedly suffered at the hands of her husband. That encounter, she says, was just one of many.
Judge Martha Anderson called the shooting tragic for both families, but that the taking of another life is still a crime - and one that must be accounted for. She delivered a sentence of 20 months to 15 years.
Talbot initially faced one count of open murder, but negotiated a plea deal for the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter. She was also ordered to pay more than $30,000 in restitution.
"I was trying to make a run for it, he cornered me in the kitchen,” she said in court. "Laying on the floor, trapped me in the corner by the refrigerator. He hit me and punched me and kicked me and choked me. He broke my bones. He stopped and held me and forced me to have sex despite multiple injuries."
Talbot was sentenced Thursday in Oakland County for shooting and killing Milosz Szcepanowicz in their Waterford home back in September.
She says Szcepanowicz beat her and their 7-year-old special needs son, and threatened to kill both of them.
"Milo said to me, 'What are you doing?and started yelling," she said. "He said Phillip was not his son, that I was a whore, and that we were going to die.
"He sat in a lawn chair, I walked out standing kitty corner behind him pointing the gun at him," she said. “He said I have five seconds to kill him otherwise he would take the gun from me and kill Phillip first and then me."
"Milosz could not defend himself when the defendant killed him, could not speak for himself when she slandered him and has no voice in this proceeding," said Teresa Szcepanowicz, the victim's mother.
Szcepanowicz's mother and brother spoke at Talbot's sentencing, calling the allegations of domestic violence untrue and pleaded with the judge to throw the book at her.
"My brother was executed without knowing he was going to die," his brother said. "No person deserves such a fate. I ask that you enforce their most serious punishment you are able to do."
The judge did acknowled that she believed Talbod had suffered abuse, but believed she could have avoided killing her husband.
"It's clear to this court that the defendant, Ms. Talbot, was indeed a victim of domestic violence," said Anderson.
Again, Talbot was sentenced to 20 months to 15 years in prison.