Australian woman kills husband in fight over Bruce Springsteen

March 13, 2008, 04:57 PM Post Comments

An Australian woman who stabbed her civil law husband to death because she was tired of being bossed around said an argument over Bruce Springsteen was the last straw.

Karen Lee Cooper pleaded guilty to manslaughter Thursday and was sentenced to eight years in prison for killing partner Kevin Watson in a drunken argument at their home in northeastern Queensland state in July 2006.

Cooper, 50, called an ambulance after suffering what her lawyer Greg Maguire called a "brain snap" and stabbing Watson, 49, once in the chest with a kitchen knife. He died at the scene.

Cooper told police she had become fed up with Waston telling her what to do during their two-year relationship. On the night of the killing, she tried to play a Springsteen CD and he took if off the stereo, triggering a bitter argument.

"I mean, who the hell doesn't like Bruce Springsteen, for God's sake?" Cooper told police in a record of interview presented to the court. "I just picked up a knife and I went 'boom'."

Cooper, who swallowed a handful of painkillers after calling the ambulance in a suicide bid, regretted stabbing Watson and believed he did not deserve to die, Maguire said.

In handing down the sentence, Justice John Byrne noted Cooper was a mother of three with no previous convictions, and said he was taking her remorse and guilty plea into account.

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