The fitness model husband of a Manhattan personal trainer influencer has been hit with additional criminal charges after his spouse was found dead with multiple stab wounds in their apartment.
After calling 911 to report finding his husband dead on the toilet in their Harlem apartment, Donald Zieben-Hood, 40, was arrested for violating a November order of protection barring him from contact with his spouse, police sources said.
Cops have not initially deemed 34-year-old Jacob Zieben-Hood’s death a homicide as the city Medical Examiner conducts an autopsy. But Manhattan District Attorney prosecutors are now charging Donald with first-degree burglary — under the section of the law that applies when the suspect physically injures someone during the commission of the crime.
Donald is also charged with weapon possession and aggravated criminal contempt for violating the order of protection.
The couple were both models and social media influencers who promoted physical fitness. The victim’s Instagram page features photos of the two of them dating back to 2016, often showing off their buff physiques and globetrotting together.
“So I got married…” reads a happy Aug. 2, 2020 post on Jacob’s Instagram alongside a photo of the two of them together.
The victim studied to be a doctor and was a trainer at SystimFit, a Greenwich Village body-sculpting gym that specializes in wireless electrical muscle stimulation, according to the company’s Instagram page.
When police arrived at the W. 138th St. apartment near Frederick Douglas Blvd. about 4 a.m. Friday they found Jacob dead with multiple stab wounds to his legs.
Police believe one of the wounds cut an artery and the victim bled to death. Multiple knives were recovered from the apartment.
An autopsy will determine if Jacob’s wounds were accidental, self-inflicted or a homicide.
His husband was awaiting arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court Sunday evening.
Donald was arrested earlier this year for two assaults against his husband inside the Harlem apartment, one at 11:30 p.m. Feb. 26 and the other early the next day.
He was accused of choking Jacob and then two hours later choking him again and hitting him in the face.
Jacob almost lost consciousness in the earlier incident and suffered swelling, pain and cuts to his face in the second assault, prosecutors say.
Donald was hit with a slew of charges including assault, strangulation, harassment, criminal obstruction of breathing and contempt of court in that case and freed on $20,000 bail.
About 7:05 p.m. June 14, Donald allegedly confronted Jacob 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. Donald is due back in court Aug. 28 for those cases.
Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News
Jacob Zieben-Hood was found dead stabbed multiple times in the legs inside his apartment on W. 138th St. in Harlem Friday. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
It’s not clear if Donald had at some point resumed living with his husband despite the active order of protection barring him from doing so.
Donald’s family’s lawyer, John Waldron, said Sunday he didn’t know “whether there was … consensual contact or not in this instance yet.”
“My understanding is, especially with the (order of protection), that the relationship was volatile at times,” Waldron added.
Waldron said he’s helping Donald’s mother navigate the criminal justice system.
“She is very distraught, upset,” he said. “She loves her son. She’s doing the best she can to help him out right now. And she’s totally confused right now because she hasn’t heard from him so she doesn’t know the circumstances of what occurred.”
The couple moved into the Harlem building just over a year ago and could often be heard arguing, neighbors said.
They were booted from an apartment in Stuyvesant Town last year for not paying more than $50,000 in back rent, court records show.
“They would get into arguments,” a neighbor in the Harlem building said after Jacob was found dead there.
“They would fight pretty often. It was different things. Earlier this week, I heard something about a divorce lawyer. There were times in the past when I heard about family drama, stuff like that. It just varies.”
They were fighting hours before Jacob was found dead, both police and neighbors said.
“They’ve been arguing for months and I’ve been complaining,” said another of the couple’s neighbors, who only identified himself as Craig. “I know couples fight, but this was abnormal. They were very loud. Slamming doors all the time.”
“I knew something tragic would happen,” he added. “It’s unfortunate.”
With Colin Mixon
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