Ex-Psychologist Gets 3 Years for Shooting Husband as He Slept Just Feet From Their Children

A former NYPD psychologist who shot her husband in the head as he slept has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison, officials said.

Emily Dearden pleaded guilty to attempted assault in the November 2013 shooting of her husband at their Yonkers home, having fired the bullet that lodged itself in his jaw as their children slept only a few feet away, Westchester County District Attorney Anthony Scarpino announced Thursday.

Police responded to their home after the victim, Kenneth Dearden woke up about 4 a.m. on November 14 with a pain on the left side of his head, authorities said.

He was rushed to a local hospital, where officials determined he had been shot in the head.

Kenneth Dearden spent about eight days at Westchester Medical Center, where he underwent several surgeries to remove the bullet from his jaw.

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After the shooting, Emily Dearden didn’t check on her children, but instead went into the basement, where the gun believed to have been used in the shooting was found, according to a lawsuit filed by her husband, the New York Daily News reported.

Emily Dearden originally told investigators that she had been knocked unconscious by an intruder on the night her husband was shot.

“I got hit hard on the left side of my head,” she reportedly told detectives. “I don’t know what I got hit with. I don’t know who hit me. I never saw it coming. I was knocked to the floor, unconscious.”

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She claimed she was awoken by her husband, who had been shot.

Police found no signs of forced entry that would point to an intruder.

Emily Dearden was arrested a week after the incident.

Authorities believe she tried to kill her husband because she was having an affair and wanted to avoid a divorce.

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