After a day of deliberations Friday, the jury in the manslaughter trial of a Merrick woman has not reached a decision.

Kelly Forbes, 29, is accused of strangling her 50-year-old husband Michael with an electrical cord while her young daughter slept in a nearby bedroom. Forbes was arrested in November and charged with murder. The charges were reduced to manslaughter after a grand jury heard the evidence for the case and returned an indictment for manslaughter.

The victim?s family is optimistic that justice will be served. ?I think it is so unfair for her to sit there and ? to be able to walk around when she took the life of my son,? the victim?s mother, Aretha Forbes, says.

Prosecutors say that Forbes was angry and snapped, and that she intended to kill her husband. Defense attorney Anthony Capetola says that the murder was self-defense, and that Forbes was simply protecting herself when her husband, an ex-con, came after her.

?She was clearly so afraid that she was gonna die. She did what she could and she summoned all her strength to do it, and I hope the jury believes it because that?s what happened,? Capetola says.

Family friend Bernard Scott is also hoping for justice for the victim. Scott says that Michael was a gentleman who just wanted to give the world to his wife. ?She didn?t have to do this,? he says, adding that Forbes could have just left her husband instead.

Deliberations are expected to resume Monday morning.

Woman charged with manslaughter in husband's death