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Laverne “Antichrist” Gets A Reduced Sentence
posted (June 27, 2014)
Lavern "Anti-Christ" Longsworth, who was serving life in prison for killing her common-law husband, will only spend about 4 and a half more years in jail. That's the decision that the Court of Appeal handed down this afternoon when it announced that her conviction in the Supreme Court for murder will be reduced to manslaughter, and her life sentence will be quashed.

As we reported, her attorneys submitted to the court that she should be afforded a defence of diminished responsibility because she was suffering from battered women's syndrome after years of physical abuse by the late David White. They were able to show with professional reports from a forensic psychiatrist that she was under duress when she doused him in kerosene and lit him on fire in July of 2010.

It's an important victory for Longsworth, and we spoke with her attorney outside of court about it:

Leslie Mendez, Co-Attorney For Laverne Longsworth
"The decision of the court of appeal is that it substituted verdict of manslaughter, it substitution to a verdict of murder and the substitute is a sentence of 8 years for manslaughter."

Daniel Ortiz
"So how much time will she actually have to serve with time on remand and time already spent?"

Leslie Mendez
"Miss Lavern will at most serve around approximately four and a half years because the court stated that it will take into account the time that she has already served."

Mike Rudon, Ch5
"Will you consider that this is a victory for your client?"

Leslie Mendez
"Well we are content with the verdict; we definitely do believe that justice was served as the court did clearly take into account the mitigating circumstances in Miss Lavern's case. And so we are satisfied with it, while it was not what we had suggested to the court, we are grateful that they showed some mercy and showed some leniency on Miss Lavern."

Mike Rudon, Ch5
"Is this expected to be it, do you expect the D.P.P. to appeal this sentence today, the decision today?"

Leslie Mendez
"Well I don't want to be too bold but I don't believe that the D.P.P. would appeal, because what she had suggested was ten years and the court gave eight years. So I think it is within the discretion, the reasonable discretion of the court what they did with the sentencing."

The breakdown of her sentence is that she was sentenced to 8 years in prison for the new manslaughter conviction. She has served almost 2 years in prison, and she spent 2 years on remand while awaiting trial. That time served will be subtracted from her total sentence, and that's why she will only spend 4 and a half more years.

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