Statistically, women are more likely to be abused by men in a relationship. But men can also be victims of domestic violence. It might be rare, but it happens, sometimes with deadly consequences.
In April of this year and August, law enforcement in two different parts of the state investigated the deaths of two men, both of who they said were stabbed to death by their girlfriends. One man lived in Miami, the other in St. Petersburg.
In August, Rhiannon Cole Spicer, 24, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder. According to her arrest affidavit, St. Petersburg police said she "did stab the left inner thigh of the said Larry Jarrell with a knife, thereby inflicting upon the said Larry Jarrell mortal wounds."
The affidavit also states law enforcement found a Google search history, "do you spend life in prison if you killed someone in self-defense."
Jarrell, 29, was found dead at the Casa Grande Apartments. Police initially said his death was "suspicious" and later determined it was a homicide after an autopsy and further investigation revealed Jarrell died from a puncture wound to the inner left thigh.
According to police, the couple had three children together. Records show there was a history of domestic violence. Spicer was ordered to have no contact with Jarrell because of a Nov. 2021 arrest.
Weeks before Jarrell was found dead, Spicer was also arrested for domestic violence and issued to have a no-contact order. Court documents show one arrest for domestic violence against Jarrell in Feb. 2021.
Another man was found dead as a result of domestic violence in Miami in April 2022.
"We are charging 26-year-old Courtney Taylor Clenney with one count of second-degree murder in Christian's death," Katherine Fernandez Rundle, State Attorney in Miami-Dade, told the media at an August news conference. "The chief medical examiner in Miami-Dade County determined that Christian's cause of death was a stab to the chest. Christian was stabbed as the knife punctured the subclavian artery in his right chest. That the knife entered Christian's chest at a downward angle to the depth of three inches."
Throughout the investigation, authorities found evidence that Clenney was allegedly the abuser, not her boyfriend.
"There is no physical evidence that led us to believe that she was actually physically harmed in any way," Miami Police Department Chief Manny Morales said.
Christine Meister, Outreach Program Manager at the Spring of Tampa Bay, told ABC Action News that in cases of domestic violence where men are the victims, biases tend to crop up.
"A lot of that has to do with gender norms," Meister said.
Meister did not comment about these recent cases; she spoke in general about her professional experience with men as victims of domestic violence.
"Men have this expectation to be tough, to be more dominant in that relationship. And so when a man comes forward and says, 'no, this is what I'm experiencing in my relationship, I don't feel safe in this relationship, my partner is abusing me, or I have this coercive control,' other people think, well, then you must not be a man," she continued.
Data reinforces that skepticism about men as victims. For example, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence,"72% of all murder-suicides involve an intimate partner-- 94% of the victims of these murder-suicides are female, and 1 in 4 women and 1 in 9 men experience severe intimate partner physical violence."
"Our advocates have that very tough time of, 'let's put gender aside and take a look at what is happening in this relationship,'" Meister said.
But she urged anyone, no matter the victim's gender, to get help before it is too late.
"Men are often unfortunately unwilling to come forward as victims of domestic violence," Meister said.
To fix issues of recurring domestic violence, Meister said it's important to recognize that it's "everybody's problem."
If you are in an abusive relationship, there are resources available 24/7:
