Autopsy results are expected today for a 46-year-old Healdsburg man killed in a domestic dispute, but a prosecutor said Tuesday that Daniel Mooney apparently was stabbed twice in the neck.
Mooney's, girlfriend Sheyna Douprea, 23, faces a murder charge for his death, and appeared briefly in Sonoma County court early Tuesday but did not enter a plea.
Wearing the standard-issue jail uniform, glasses and her long, dark hair hanging loose, Douprea bit her lip repeatedly during the hearing, responding "yes" when Judge Eliott Daum asked if she was willing to delay her bail and plea hearing to Dec. 30.
"She's very upset. She's in the mental-health ward" of the county jail, said Douprea's attorney, Jamie Thistlethwaite, after the court appearance.
Douprea has a 2-year-old daughter who is now in the care of the girl's grandmother. The girl is not Mooney's child, Thistlewaite said.
Coroner's officials said Mooney's autopsy was completed Tuesday, and preliminary results are expected today.
Following Douprea's hearing, Deputy District Attorney Bob Waner said Mooney had apparently suffered two stab wounds in his neck.
Police found Mooney wounded at his central Healdsburg apartment early Sunday afternoon after Douprea's mother called 911 and told dispatchers there might be someone there with potentially fatal wounds.
Mooney died at Healdsburg General Hospital a short time later.
Douprea was arrested following questioning.
One neighbor said the couple was known to fight frequently and police had been to the Mason Street apartment twice.
Sonoma County court records show Douprea was convicted in 2007 of battery and grand theft and in 2006 of battery on a spouse.
Thistlethwaite, who also represented Douprea on the earlier charges, said she didn't believe Mooney was the victim in those cases.
Domestic violence cases involving women arrested for homicide in Sonoma County are infrequent.
"We've had half a dozen in the last decade or so," said Sonoma County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Joan Risse.
"It's very rare," said veteran defense attorney Chris Andrian, who has worked in Sonoma County more than three decades.
Among the cases:
In 1990, Cloverdale resident Irene Giampaoli shot husband Craig Giampaoli in the back of the head with his assault rifle as he slept in their bedroom. She is serving a sentence of 29 years to life.
In 1993, a frail 82-year-old Oakmont woman, Elsa Johnson, beat her husband, Kenneth Johnson, 79, to death with a cane. She was declared mentally incompetent and incapable of standing trial.
In 1995, socially prominent Santa Rosa resident Shirley Ann Nelson, 65, attempted to kill her estranged husband, telling police she was angry he left her for another woman after 30 years of marriage. She shot Ronald Nelson twice as he left work at the office of "Peanuts" cartoonist Charles Schulz. He survived the shooting. She also shot herself but survived and was sentenced to a year in jail.
In 2000, Debi Zuver shot her boyfriend, Kim Garloff, 43, in the head on Thanksgiving night in their Santa Rosa residence. She was sentenced to 21 years in state prison.
In 2001, the body of Scott Dyer, 54, of Clearlake was found stuffed inside a tattered couch at a county dump. He died of an overdose of alcohol and a prescription painkiller. Charlotte Key, who was living with Dyer, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.
In 2003, Sylvie Stewart of Laytonville shot her boyfriend Aaron Foss, 31, as they sat together in her living room. She pleaded guilty to first-degree murder to have a firearms enhancement dropped. Her motion later to withdraw the plea was denied. She was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 521-5412 or randi.rossmann@
pressdemocrat.com. News researcher Vonnie Matthews contributed to this report.
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