Wife On Trial for Stabbing Husband 193 Times

H O U S T O N, Texas, March 2 -- A Houston woman sobbed as she tried to explain to jurors why she stabbed her husband nearly 200 times last year.

"I couldn't stop stabbing him; I couldn't stop," Susan Wright testified as she cried. "I knew as soon as I stopped, he was going to get the knife back and he wasgoing to kill me," she said. "I didn't want to die."

Wright fended off accusations Tuesday from prosecutor Kelly Siegler that her tears were faked for the jury's benefit.

"I haven't cried on cue once," Wright said.

Wright took the stand in her own defense Monday and Tuesday, saying she stabbed the father of her two children in self-defense on the night of Jan. 13, 2003.

Wright said she, and her husband of five years, Jeffrey Wright, appeared to be the perfect couple in public. In private, however, Wright said their marriage was anything but perfect.

Wright, 27, claims her husband was a monster who beat her, emotionally abused her and accused her of cheating. She said the night he died was the first time she fought back.

She testified that her husband, 34 at the time of his death, had been on a cocaine binge before he became violent and allegedly raped her on the night she stabbed him to death in self-defense.

Prosecutors say Wright killed her husband for insurance money, stabbing him 193 times, after allegedly tying him to their bed.

Wright, who could face up to life in prison if convicted, is said to have buried her husband's body under their backyard patio, where her husband had been digging a hole to install a fountain. The body was discovered when her lawyer notified authorities a week after the man's death.

In an unusual courtroom demonstration, prosecutors brought the Wright's bed into the courtroom in an effort to show the jury how they believe Jeff was killed.

They showed the jury how Susan Wright allegedly tied her husband to the bed and then stabbed him 193 times.