GUILTY
June 20, 2008
A woman who claimed she was an angel sent from God to punish pedophiles was sane when she killed two boyfriends whose remains were found scattered around her farm, a jury found Friday.
Because Sheila LaBarre already had admitted that the state could prove her guilty of two counts of first-degree murder, the jury’s only task during the five-week trial was determining whether she was insane when she killed Michael Deloge in 2005 and Kenneth Countie in 2006. She was sentenced immediately to life in prison without parole.
As the jury filed out after the verdict, family members of the victims burst into applause.
“This is for my son,” said Countie’s mother, Carolynn Lodge. “(For) two years, my son could not rest. Now he can rest.”
The burden of proof was on the defense to show both that LaBarre, 49, of Epping, suffered from a mental disease and that the murders were a product of that illness. Defense lawyers argued that LaBarre was a delusional woman who believed every man in her life was a pedophile and who saw herself as an avenging angel. But the prosecution countered that she was a “crude, manipulative, cruel and vindictive” woman who violently lashed out at the men she dated.
Full story from The Associated Press
Also see:
Victims’ Families Denounce LaBarre After Guilty Ruling - WMUR
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