Laverne "Anti Christ" Longsworth set her common law husband David White on fire in July of 2010. He died 18 days later from those severe burns. She's since served three and a half years in jail - but now she faces a very real chance of getting a reduced sentence.
That's because her attorney Godfrey Smith got a British forensic psychiatrist to assess her. The psychiatrist concluded that Longsworth was suffering from battered women's syndrome - which diminished her responsibility for her actions. That finding was the centerpiece for an argument in favor of a reduced sentence.
Longsworth was expected to get that reduced sentenced today but Smith and his juniour counsel, Leslie Mendez had another plan: they believed they could establish to the court that she deserved to get off with time served. 7News was at the Court of Appeal:..
Monica Bodden reporting
With shackles on her ankles and a rosary around her neck, Laverne Antichrist Longsworth appeared in the court of Appeal this morning for sentencing. But there wouldn't be a sentencing because her attorney, Leslie Mendez asked for her to get off with time served:
Leslie Mendez, Co-Attorney For Laverne Longsworth
"We believe that there are some serious and substantial and numerous mitigating factors in Ms. Longworth's case which puts it in the realm of an exceptional case which necessitates leniency of the time that we suggested which is in accordance with the time served."
But the DPP seemed agreeable to ten years based on past cases. That would have been significantly less than the life in prison Longsworth was sentenced to in November of 2012. That compromise could have resulted in a reduced sentence today, but when Mendez proposed time served the DPP was sternly opposed to letting her off with that - she said it would be an affront to justice to serve only three and a half years after she lit her common law husband David White on fire.
But her attorney insists that battered women's syndrome was a consequential factor:
Leslie Mendez, Co-Attorney For Laverne Longsworth
"We certainly appreciate that taking of a life is a serious offence and it should be regarded and treated as a serious offence before the courts. However it must also be judge in the overall circumstances of the case and Ms. Longsworth is not getting away free in accordance with our submissions, she has served 3 years and 6 months and other battered women have also been sentenced to 3 years and 4 months, 5 years, 7 years in other jurisdictions and therefore we do not believe that it is an effrontery justice."
Longsworth was returned to prison and the panel of judges led by Dennis Morrison, with Justices Samuel Awich and Minette Hafiz have set sentencing for next week Friday afternoon.
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