Male model hit with more charges after husband dead with stab wounds in Harlem home

Via NYDN: The fitness model husband whose personal-trainer influencer spouse was found dead with multiple stab wounds in their Manhattan apartment will remain in jail after a judge denied him bail and the case is being investigated as a homicide.

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 husband, police sources said.

In the 911 call that night, 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 at his arraignment Sunday night.

The death of 34-year-old Jacob Zieben-Hood is being investigated as a homicide, prosecutors said. He is currently charged with first-degree burglary — under the section of the law that applies when the suspect physically injures someone during the commission of a crime.

He is also charged with weapon possession and aggravated criminal contempt for violating the order of protection. Donald “has demonstrated an escalating pattern of violence toward his husband in defiance of multiple public court orders, culminating in his husband’s death,” prosecutors said at his arraignment.

Jacob and Donald were both models and social media influencers who promoted physical fitness. The victim’s Instagram page features photos of the two of them dating 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 page 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.

On the night of Jacob’s death, he called his father and told him Donald was “coming after him” and preventing him from leaving the apartment, prosecutors said. “The victim’s father heard the defendant’s voice in the background screaming at the victim and calling him derogatory names,” the prosecutor said.

When police arrived at the W. 138th St. apartment near Frederick Douglass Blvd. at about 4 a.m. Friday, Donald was sitting on the sofa and told police Jacob attacked him, prosecutors said. He had three cuts to his arms requiring stitches, according to prosecutors.

“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.

Police believe one of the wounds cut an artery, and that 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.

At his arraignment Sunday night, Donald appeared with stubble on his face, wearing a black T-shirt, black shorts and sneakers. His defense attorney said he had been attacked at Rikers Island.

Donald was arrested earlier this year for two assaults against his husband in 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 was freed on $20,000 bail.

At about 7:05 p.m. on 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.

In addition to the two open cases, prosecutors said there were nine domestic incident reports between March 2024 and Jacob’s death where Donald was not arrested, including one where a neighbor called 911. When the police arrived in that case, Jacob “had a gash in his forehead that was gushing blood, but the victim and the defendant both said the victim fell and hit his head,” according to the prosecutor.

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.

As recently as May 2024, the couple attended a Kentucky Derby and birthday party for Town & Country editor and socialite Gillian Hearst, where they were pictured wearing matching white pants and blue blazers in front of a backdrop of pink flowers.

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, according to neighbors and police.

“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.”