Months after being found lifeless and covered in blood with stab wounds to his head and leg in the bathroom of his Manhattan apartment, the death of model and fitness influencer Jacob Zieben has been ruled a homicide, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner told the Daily News on Friday.
Jacob Zieben died from “multiple blunt and sharp force injuries,” with acute alcohol and lorazepam intoxication and chronic alcohol use as contributing factors, a representative from the OCME said. The chief medical examiner has ruled Zieben’s manner of death a homicide.
Lorazepam, an anti-anxiety medication, can lower blood pressure and slow breathing and its effects increase with alcohol.
Zieben’s estranged husband, Donald Zieben-Hood, was arrested on Aug. 1 after police found Zieben dead with multiple stab wounds, including to his head and leg, slumped over on the toilet in the couple’s Harlem apartment on W. 138th St. near Frederick Douglass Blvd. Zieben-Hood was initially charged with burglary, criminal contempt and weapons possession. In early October he was hit with additional charges, including aggravated felony assault.
Although Zieben-Hood has not yet been charged with murder, the case has been investigated as a homicide since the beginning, police and prosecutors have said.
The night before his death, Zieben called his father and told him that Zieben-Hood had attacked him with a knife and refused to let him out of their apartment, prosecutors said at Zieben-Hood’s initial arraignment in August. He also texted his father a photo of a deep gash on his leg where he said Zieben-Hood had slashed him with a knife.
Around 4 a.m. on July 31, Zieben-Hood called 911 to the apartment, telling responding officers that Zieben had attacked him, police said. He did not mention Zieben’s injuries but said that he himself was “gashed wide open” and needed medical attention, showing officers three cuts to his arms that ended up required stitches.
“The victim, meanwhile, was slumped over on the floor covered in blood with gashes from his head and multiple stab wounds to the back of his leg, including a stabbing on the back of his calf that penetrated his muscle,” the prosecutor said at the August arraignment.
Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News
Jacob Zieben, 34, was pronounced dead at the scene after he was found stabbed multiple times in the legs inside a fourth-floor apartment at 250 W. 138th St. in Manhattan on Friday, Aug. 1, 2025. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
Zieben-Hood was arrested for violating a November order of protection barring him from contacting his husband or entering the apartment. In the 911 call Zieben-Hood acknowledged as much to the operator, saying, “I had an order of protection placed against me. I’m getting arrested, right?” prosecutors said.
There were nine domestic violence reports documenting Zieben-Hood’s pattern of violence against his husband, dating as far back as 2022, prosecutors said.
In March 2024, a neighbor called 911 after hearing the couple screaming at each other. This year alone, Zieben-Hood was arrested twice for allegedly attacking his husband. In February he was accused of choking Zieben and then two hours later choking him again and hitting him in the face. Zieben almost lost consciousness in the earlier incident and suffered swelling, pain and cuts to his face in the second assault, prosecutors said.
Zieben-Hood was hit with a slew of charges, including assault, strangulation, harassment, criminal obstruction of breathing and contempt of court in that case and was freed on $20,000 bail.
Around 7:05 p.m. on June 14, Zieben-Hood allegedly confronted Zieben outside their Harlem home with a knife and said, “I will attack you,” according to a criminal complaint. He was charged with menacing and contempt of court and released on $5,000 bail.
About a month before he was due back in court to answer for those charges, Zieben-Hood allegedly killed his husband.
At his August arraignment Zieben-Hood was denied bail.
On Oct. 1, he was indicted for burglary, felony assault, aggravated criminal contempt and criminal weapons possession — but notably not murder — in connection with alleged ongoing violence against Zieben.
Zieben-Hood has been locked up since his initial arrest. He is currently incarcerated at Otis Bantum Correctional Center on Rikers Island. His next court date is Jan. 7, 2026.
With Thomas Tracy
