Police: Abused woman killed by husband

MIAMI, Sept. 29 (UPI) -- A Miami woman who endured a lifetime of physical abuse and even shot her late husband in self-defense has been killed by her current spouse, police allege.

Police said while Cassandra Johnson avoided a prison sentence in the 1993 killing of her abusive husband due to a plea deal, she married another man who allegedly abused her and ultimately took her life this month, The Miami Herald said Monday.

Police have charged 49-year-old Randy Lipkins with stabbing his Johnson 22 times and striking her in the face repeatedly with a hammer. Johnson's body was discovered Sept. 11 by her son, Omar Eaford.

Johnson's death came 15 years after she pleaded guilty to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for fatally shooting her husband, John Harris, at a Miami mall, the Herald said. Her attorney successfully argued that his client's actions were prompted by years of spousal abuse of Johnson.

For Eaford, knowing his mother died at the hands of one allegedly abusive husband after the 1993 incident was an eerie coincidence.

''She took a man's life -- and now she died by a man. They were all no good anyway,'' he told the Herald.