A man’s final frantic phone call with his dad has been revealed after he was found dead with multiple stab wounds and his model husband was arrested on burglary charges.
Personal trainer Jacob Zieben-Hood’s body was found in his Harlem apartment’s bathroom after he allegedly had a fight with his husband the night before.
Shortly before his death, he had made a panicked phone call to his dad which revealed what was happening before he died.
Donald Zieben-Hood, 40 was arrested for burglary without bail after his 34-year-old soon-to-be-doctor husband was found dead on 1 August, covered in stab wounds.
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Horrifyingly, court records and even neighbours went on to conclude that the pair seemed to have a brutal bond, with alleged domestic violence dating back to 2022.
According to prosecutors, there were multiple court protection orders in place to protect Jacob, and it's alleged that Donald had defied them. While he has been arrested on charges of burglary and contempt of court, he has not been charged with Jacob's death.
“They fought all the time, I would hear it,” Craig Wesley, a neighbour, told The New York Post.
But the alleged fight that Friday would prove to be their last.
Jacob was studying to be a doctor, and had warned his father the night before he was found dead that his husband was ‘coming after him’ and not allowing him to leave home, prosecutors said.
He also allegedly sent his dad an image which shows his leg injured.
While still on the line, the father testified that he could hear Donald screaming ‘derogatory names’ at his son, according to court documents.
Hours after the phone call, police went on to find Jacob splayed across the toilet, covered in blood with stab wounds to his head and to the back of his leg.
Donald himself received several cuts on his arms requiring stitches, and admitted to police that he and Jacob engaged in a knife fight before making the claim that he had fallen asleep afterwards.
It was then at around 4am that he found Jacob dead.
Prosecutors said police logged nine domestic incident reports about the couple in the last three years.
Just last year police records show Donald was arrested after allegedly hitting Jacob in the head with an unspecified ‘object’ and Jacob sought an order of protection afterwards.
He was then arrested in February for allegedly strangling Jacob twice during an argument.
A month later, police found Jacob with his forehead gushing blood, as both claimed he had fallen and hit his head.
According to the court, on 14 June, Donald is said to have threatened Jacob with a kitchen knife, telling him: “I will attack you.”
He was then accused of violating his order of protection and was under two orders at the time of Jacob’s death.
Donald was charged with first-degree burglary, weapons possession and aggravated criminal contempt for violating the protection orders, and his bail was denied.
Britt Jones