Jury Acquits Caba Of Murdering Her Husband Two-Week Trial Showed A Turbulent, Often Violent Relationship; Seven Men And Five Women On Jury Reached Verdict In Three Hours

After years of abuse, more than two months behind bars and a two-week murder trial, Darlene Caba is finally free.

On Friday, a jury of five women and seven men acquitted her of second-degree murder for the shooting death of her husband, James Caba Sr.

Family and friends sobbed and hugged her, saying, “It’s all over” and “You’re free.”

“She’s been through hell for so long,” said Donna Virnig, Caba’s sister. “It was a just verdict.”

James Caba’s family was not in the courtroom when the verdict was read and declined phone calls to their hotel room in Coeur d’Alene.

On Dec. 15, 1994, Kootenai County Sheriff’s deputies found James Caba Sr., 59, dead at the couple’s home on Beauty Bay Road east of Coeur d’Alene.

Darlene Caba, 50, has never denied shooting her husband in the chest with a .38-caliber handgun.

“My husband was trying to kill me,” Caba said in a hushed voice Friday.

The couple had been arguing throughout the night and into the early morning. James Caba had been drinking heavily.

Caba contends she picked up a gun that was sitting on a nearby shelf because her husband first threatened to kill her with a 10-inch knife and then threatened to shoot her.

As she picked up the gun to take it away, it accidentally fired, she says.

James and Darlene Caba married in 1973. Throughout the two-week trial the couple’s friends and family described a turbulent and often violent relationship.

Several of Darlene Caba’s relatives and friends talked of seeing her punched, beaten and humiliated by her husband.

The alcohol and prescription drugs James Caba abused fueled his violent mood swings, Darlene Caba said after the trial.

Kootenai County Deputy Prosecutor Lansing Haynes said the abuse worked both ways.

“This family was horrible to each other,” he said, pointing out that an autopsy of James Caba turned up several fresh bruises on his body.

Haynes tried to show that Darlene Caba had been suspected of shooting her husband in the past. Oregon sheriff’s records show that James Caba was shot through the neck in 1980. Kootenai County records show he was again shot in the leg in 1993.

In both cases, James Caba dismissed the incidents as an accident and a suicide attempt. No charges were filed.

Haynes pointed out several inconsistencies in the story Caba told investigators after she shot and killed her husband.

Haynes also tried to show that Darlene Caba did not need to shoot her husband to defend herself. She weighed 280 pounds while her husband weighed 135 pounds and had a bad back.

The jury deliberated for three hours before returning their not-guilty verdict.

“She never should have been charged,” Glen Walker, Caba’s attorney, said afterward.

Haynes, however, said the office screens cases very carefully.

“The whole circumstance was such that we could not simply write this off as an accident and we could not write it off as self-defense,” he said. “The verdict is the verdict and that’s the way our system works.”

Caba suffers from post traumatic stress disorder from the years of abuse and is seeking counseling, Walker said. Caba said she will try to piece her life back together although she is not sure yet where to begin.

“I still love my husband, I don’t want him to be dead,” she said, still wearing her wedding ring. “He was my best friend.”

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