Jacob Zieben and Jacob Paulson have been quick associates once they met in 2013. Apart from their shared identify, the pair have been each younger homosexual males recent out of faculty who just lately moved to New York Metropolis.
After two years spent glued on the hip, Paulson stated their dynamic shortly modified after his pal, a private coach from Texas, began courting mannequin Donald Hood.
“He simply vanished,” Paulson stated this week in a cellphone interview, choking up. “I had no contact with him, and I simply wished him to be completely happy, and that’s all I actually cared about. And I hoped that he was.”
Though the lack of the friendship stung, Paulson stated he moved on years in the past. He didn’t attend his former pal’s 2020 wedding ceremony and was solely conscious from social media that Jacob and Donald each modified their final names to Zieben-Hood.
However Paulson was shocked and flooded with recollections when, simply two weeks in the past, he noticed his former pal’s identify within the headlines after police discovered the 34-year-old lifeless inside his Harlem residence.
When authorities entered the residence on July 31 after Donald known as for assist, they discovered Jacob slumped over his bathroom with a gash on his head and a number of stab wounds to the again of his leg, one deep sufficient to penetrate muscle, based on charging paperwork.
His demise got here after years of alleged abuse courting to 2022, detailed in a sequence of charging paperwork in opposition to Donald on felony counts together with strangulation and menacing. These costs stay pending.
Donald, a 40-year-old mannequin with over 67,000 Instagram followers, was arrested on July 31 and charged with a number of crimes, together with housebreaking. He’s at present being held at Rikers Island with out bail. Prosecutors haven’t charged anybody with homicide or named a suspect for Jacob’s demise, citing his pending post-mortem, however stated they’re investigating the case as a murder.
Within the days since his demise, Paulson and 7 others who knew Jacob spoke with NBC Information as they slowly realized in regards to the private coach’s life during the last decade. And whereas his deadly stabbing comes as a shock, those that knew Jacob imagine Donald reduce out his associates — and potential lifelines — years earlier than he actually wanted them.
“I want I had executed extra, however, in hindsight, what would you do?” stated considered one of Jacob’s previous associates, Marti G. Cummings.
Donald’s legal professional declined to remark.
After learning biomedical sciences at Texas A&M College, Jacob moved to New York Metropolis in 2013 and shortly met Paulson and Joshua Baker.
Paulson and Baker stated that the trio by no means went “anyplace with out one another” and spent infinite days cooped up in Jacob’s Hell’s Kitchen residence, which they are saying neglected Central Park, taking part in video video games, consuming fried meals, and daydreaming about their futures.
“We have been these cute little misfits that have been attempting to determine the place we slot in New York society,” Baker stated.
Cummings met Jacob across the identical time and gravitated towards his selflessness and want for neighborhood. A distinguished New York Metropolis drag queen who makes use of they/them pronouns, Cummings stated Jacob would continuously stroll them between gigs late at night time to ensure they acquired there safely.
“He was a protector, which is why I feel it makes this complete factor sadder,” Cummings stated. “He didn’t get to be protected against this.”
Lauren Foster, a pal of Donald’s since 2000, described him as “a great man” and stated that she was by no means beneath the impression that his relationship was troubled. She did, nonetheless, acknowledge that the roles Jacob and Donald performed have been clear.
“I don’t suppose he had a ton of associates,” Foster stated of Jacob. “Don was type of the alpha within the relationship.”
“There’s all the time one person who’s dominant within the relationship, and that was undoubtedly Don,” she added. “I feel Don can be the alpha in any relationship. He’s bigger than life.”
Baker stated that shortly after Jacob met Donald within the spring of 2015, Jacob started dodging invites, declining cellphone calls, and ignoring textual content messages. Quickly, Baker famous, Jacob began to even block his associates’ cellphone numbers.
Jonathan Starkey, a pal from Texas, recalled that in a single dialog round that point, Jacob stated that “quite a bit had modified, and that Donald was just a little possessive and jealous and type of restricted who he was in contact with.”
“Jacob wasn’t actually somebody who let folks inform him what to do, which is why it’s so unusual,” Starkey stated.
Jacob’s abrupt silence prompted Baker to succeed in out to Donald.
“Jacob is doing very properly,” Donald wrote to Baker in a November 5, 2015, direct message on Fb, based on screenshots of the dialog supplied to NBC Information. “He’s determined to interrupt away from his previous, which sadly included his closest associates, as a way to transfer ahead with a wholesome life.”
“He’s been very targeted and is again heading in the right direction in his life and as a way to stay targeted he’ll stay out of contact for the second,” Donald added.
For years, the one updates Jacob’s associates obtained about their pal got here via social media, the place pictures from the couple’s Instagrams confirmed what seemed to be a cheerful couple who traveled the world and lived a glamorous New York life. The pair posted loving selfies, footage from their wedding ceremony in 2020, and snapshots with their households.
However court docket paperwork paint a protracted sample of alleged abuse within the relationship that authorities say began in 2022.
Prosecutors stated within the charging paperwork filed after Jacob’s demise that Donald had 9 home incident stories filed in opposition to him since 2022, however didn’t present extra particulars in regards to the nature of the incidents or who filed them. In November 2024, an order of safety was issued in New York County Prison Courtroom that directed Donald to stop communication and avoid Jacob, based on charging paperwork related to Donald’s arrest in February.
In February, Donald was arrested and charged with strangulation, amongst a number of different costs, for allegedly attacking Jacob contained in the Harlem residence. Jacob “nearly misplaced consciousness, and sustained swelling, substantial ache, and redness to his neck” from the incident, based on the charging paperwork. Donald pleaded not responsible to the fees within the case that’s nonetheless pending.
A second court docket order of safety was issued in legal court docket in April, which as soon as once more prevented Donald from seeing or speaking with Jacob.
Donald was arrested once more in June and charged with legal contempt and menacing, based on court docket paperwork. The court docket data allege that Donald held a knife in Jacob’s path and stated, “I’ll assault you.” He pleaded not responsible to the fees, and the case remains to be pending.
Paulson stated that earlier this yr, Jacob adopted him on Instagram and gave him hope that the chums would possibly reconnect after a short change in March.
“I used to be so excited to have that prospect of him coming again into my life after I’d type of let him go as a pal,” Paulson stated. “After which to have it actually simply completely finish, it’s simply devastated me. It’s actually wrecked me.”
Donald known as 911 on July 31 from Jacob’s one-bedroom residence at West 138th Avenue and advised them he discovered his husband lifeless on the bathroom.
When police arrived, they discovered Donald sitting on their sofa with three cuts to his arm that later required stitches, a black eye, and chunk marks, based on a legal grievance. He advised authorities that Jacob had attacked him.
Nonetheless, prosecutors say that Jacob known as his father from the toilet earlier than the assault and allegedly advised him that Donald “was coming at him with knives and stopping him from leaving the residence,” based on the legal grievance. Through the name, Jacob’s father allegedly heard Donald screaming derogatory names at Jacob within the background, the grievance added.
Donald was arrested later that day and charged with housebreaking, aggravated legal contempt, legal contempt within the first diploma and possession of a weapon. On Thursday, he was scheduled to seem in court docket, however a choose waived his look on the request of his legal professional.
He’s now set to seem on September 12, nearly a month after Jacob’s funeral, scheduled for this weekend in San Antonio.
As authorities proceed to research the case, Jacob’s associates have been connecting and sharing previous recollections of their late pal.
“Years can go by, however he was our household until’ the tip,” Baker stated.
