The fitness model who was discovered fatally stabbed in his apartment’s bathroom had called his father to report that his husband, who is also a model, was ‘coming after him,’ according to Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
This new information sheds light on the moments leading up to the August 1 death of Jacob Zieben-Hood, 34, as District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced that his husband, Donald Zieben-Hood, is facing several charges related to incidents before the murder.
While Donald Zieben-Hood, the 40-year-old Instagram model, has not been charged with murder, prosecutors claim that he spent months terrorizing Jacob by repeatedly breaking into his Harlem apartment to assault him.
Although no suspect has been officially named in Jacob’s death, authorities are treating it as a homicide. The New York City Medical Examiner’s Office has yet to finalize the autopsy.
According to Bragg, Jacob called his father on July 31 to tell him that Donald was beating him and cutting him with a knife.
Throughout the night, Jacob sent photos showing injuries, including cuts on his face and head, and a ‘large bleeding gash’ on his leg’s back.
At 4 am on August 1, Donald contacted the police to report finding Jacob dead in their bathroom. He was arrested at the scene and has been detained at Riker’s Island without bail since then.
Prosecutors said police found Jacob ‘dead in the bathroom, slumped over on the toilet with cuts and stab wounds to the back of his leg and a head wound’.
Donald Zieben-Hood (left) has been indicted on charges related to three acts of intimate partner violence he allegedly committed against his husband Jacob Zieben-Hood (right), who was then murdered in August
Notably, even though authorities believe Donald killed Jacob, he has not been charged with murder. Police are still investigating the homicide and have no formal suspects
Additionally, the apartment ‘had items strewn about with blood on the furniture, walls, floor, and counters’.
Bragg said Wednesday that Donald allegedly ‘escalated his threatening conduct towards his husband in multiple acts of intimate partner violence over the course of a year’.
Donald has pleaded not guilty to all 16 charges, which include two counts of burglary in the first degree; two counts of burglary in the second degree; one count of assault in the second degree; two counts of aggravated criminal contempt; eight counts of criminal contempt in the first degree; and one count of criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree.
On February 25, Donald was arrested after an alleged attack on his husband inside the same apartment.
Jacob ‘almost lost consciousness, and sustained swelling, substantial pain, and redness to his neck’ from the beating, according to the charging documents seen by NBC News.
Prosecutors said that Donald was in violation of an order of protection that had been granted to Jacob in November 2024.
Police entered the apartment after Jacob called 911, and he was granted another protection order from Donald at his home and his office.
Friends of Jacob have said that he withdrew socially after he got together with Donald in 2015
On June 14, Donald was arrested yet again after he showed up at Jacob’s home to threaten him with a knife, according to police. Donald was hit with a third protection order.
In the aftermath of the fatal attack in August, which authorities believe was committed by Donald, people who used to have close ties with Jacob revealed his relationship caused him to ‘vanish’ from their lives for years.
‘I had no contact with him, and I just wanted him to be happy, and that’s all I really cared about. And I was hoping that he was,’ Jacob Paulson told NBC News.
Paulson and Jacob became best friends in 2013. But after two years of being inseparable, Jacob started dating Donald and began to withdraw from the friendship.
Another old friend, Joshua Baker, said his relationship with Jacob took a turn for the worse once he got together with Donald in 2015.
Jacob started ghosting him – ignoring invitations and phone calls, Baker said. At one point, Jacob had even started blocking his former friends.
