Women get lighter sentences due to their traumatic past
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/01/2018 (2827 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Two women have been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years after they were found guilty of killing a 53-year-old man in his downtown apartment more than three years ago.
Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Colleen Suche imposed life sentences Friday on 31-year-old Raven Desjarlais and 33-year-old Clarissa Ponace for second-degree murder in the July 2014 death of Arthur Hausserman. Hausserman was strangled to death after meeting the women in a bar and inviting them to stay over at his Hargrave Street apartment.
He was found dead by firefighters early on the morning of July 26, 2014, and investigators discovered the women had set a stovetop fire as well as pouring bleach and laundry soap on the victim’s body before they fled the scene. Suche described it Friday as “a rather amateur” effort to hide the homicide.
A jury convicted both women on the murder and arson charges in November, and Suche was tasked with deciding how long they’ll have to wait before they’ll be allowed to apply for parole. She settled on the 10-year minimum for parole ineligibility after hearing details of both women’s traumatic life experiences. Desjarlais and Ponace both experienced childhood sexual abuse and physical abuse. Desjarlais, who admitted to strangling Hausserman with a cord after she woke up to him touching her, lived a live “surrounded and ruled by drugs and violence” from an early age. She and Ponace both did sex work to support their drug habits, court heard.
Desjarlais said her attack on Hausserman had to do with her past sexual abuse. He had gone into the bedroom that night with Ponace, and Desjarlais slept on the couch, but she couldn’t handle it when she awoke to a partially clothed Hausserman rubbing her leg. The jury accepted that Ponace helped Desjarlais try to destroy evidence of the killing.
The judge told the women they must change their behaviour if they ever hope to be released on parole.
“It is therefore up to you to heal the wounds your lives have brought you,” Suche said.