[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
A male model has been arrested after his estranged husband was found dead, covered in stab wounds.
The horrifying story comes out of Harlem, where early on Friday morning, police reportedly received a call from Donald Zieben-Hood. The male model, according to New York Daily News, spoke to 911 operators and said he’d found his husband, Jacob Zieben-Hood (as seen on the right, in the gym selfie), dead on the toilet in his home. The most disturbing part of this call is what he said next, though:
“I had an order of protection placed against me. I’m getting arrested, right?”
Holy s**t…
Related: 17-Year-Old Star Athlete Fatally Stabbed ‘In The Heart’ During Track Meet Attack
Creepy as hell. And the details only get more terrifying from there.
Backing it up to 2020, the pair reportedly married sometime around August, per their Instagram posts. They seemed relatively happy on social media, sharing their lives and their careers with their friends and followers. It wasn’t until last year did things get intense.
According to prosecutors, per NBC New York, in late 2024 Jacob had the protection order placed against Donald. It was supposed to protect the 34-year-old victim from having any sort of communication with his husband whatsoever, but according to future incidents, that order was broken several times.
In February 2025, prosecutors say Donald was accused of choking his husband and hitting him in the face — to the point he nearly lost consciousness. In June, he was also accused of confronting Jacob with a knife, declaring:
“I will attack you.”
Prosecutors say between March and now, NINE domestic violence incidents occurred between the couple. Donald even got arrested for the alleged knife threat, with his court dates set for sometime this month… but then, Jacob was stabbed to death.
On Friday when Donald made that chilling phone call, police walked into a horror scene. Jacob was reportedly found “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.” Upon police’s arrival, though, Donald claimed Jacob attacked him first, and he even required stitches for injuries he had on his arm.
Police are investigating this as a homicide, and they think the victim bled to death after an artery was slashed. Just horrifying.
And just as Donald feared, he was arrested. He was slapped with some pretty heavy charges of first-degree burglary, weapon possession, and aggravated criminal contempt for violating an order of protection. His family’s lawyer told the outlet he wasn’t sure this was “consensual contact or not” between the couple in this instance:
“My understanding is, especially with the [order of protection], that the relationship was volatile at times.”
That’s a sentiment neighbors echoed, too, saying they’d “fight pretty often” and that they even heard the couple saying “something about a divorce lawyer” earlier in the week. A second neighbor said the couple had been “arguing for months … They were very loud. Slamming doors all the time.”
Later on at Donald’s arraignment on Sunday, prosecutors also claimed Jacob had called his father the night of his death, saying Donald was “coming after him” and blocking his exit from the apartment:
“The victim’s father heard the defendant’s voice in the background screaming at the victim and calling him derogatory names.”
So, so awful…
At the arraignment, the accused model was denied bail, with prosecutors saying he “demonstrated an escalating pattern of violence toward his husband in defiance of multiple public court orders, culminating in his husband’s death.” Meanwhile, police are waiting on an autopsy to officially confirm Jacob’s passing as murder before they attempt to charge anyone with a crime.
Such a scary situation. We hope Jacob’s loved ones can get answers and closure soon. May he rest in peace.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, help is available. Consider calling the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233, or text START to 88788, or go to https://www.thehotline.org/.
[Image via Jacob Zieben-Hood/Instagram]
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