Danielle Redlick: Florida woman weeps as she’s cleared of murdering stepfather-turned-husband

Danielle Redlick wept as the jury found her not guilty of murdering university director Michael Redlick

(WESH)

A Florida woman has been cleared of stabbing her stepfather-turned-husband to death at their home in 2019.

Danielle Redlick, 48, wept as the jury found her not guilty of murdering 65-year-old university director Michael Redlick.

During her trial, Ms Redlick told the jury that she stabbed her husband in self-defence as he tried to “smother her to death” on 11 January 2019.

The court was told that she called 911 and initially told investigators that her husband had suffered a heart attack, before telling detectives that he had stabbed himself.

Prosecutors claimed that she had deliberately stabbed her husband, before going to the bedroom where she looked at a dating app and erased phone messages.

They accused her of then bleaching the scene at the couple’s $1m home in Winter Park, Florida, before calling for help 11 hours later.

Her defence team argued that Mr Redlick was violent and controlling, and that the “only option” she had “in that kitchen was to take action”.

While clearing her of murder, the jury convicted her of tampering with evidence. The judge ruled that she could be released on a $15,000 bond as she awaits sentencing for the tampering charge in August.

The court was told that Mr Redlick became her stepfather when she was 20 and he married her mother, who died of breast cancer just three months later.

She said that she and Mr Redlick’s relationship became intimate before she turned 21 and that he asked for her help in raising her younger sister in his home.

Despite her family’s objections, she explained that she eventually married her stepfather and they lived in Memphis where he worked for the city’s NBA team.