Warning: Story contains graphic details of a murder and may not be suitable for all readers.
A woman cannot apply for parole for 12 years after she murdered her ex-boyfriend, cut his body up and disposed of it at numerous waterways around Nanaimo.
Paris Jayanne Laroche, 29, was found guilty of second-degree murder after the disappearance of Sidney Joseph Mantee, reported missing in 2020. B.C. Supreme Court justice Robin Baird rendered his decision Thursday, Feb. 6 at B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver.
During the trial, evidence was presented that Mantee had abused Laroche, choking her to the point of unconsciousness and verbally abusing her. Eventually, Laroche hit Mantee with a hammer numerous times while he slept and slashed his throat with a knife. She drained his body of blood, cut it up and disposed of the body parts over a period of months at areas such as Neck Point Park and Pipers Lagoon.
A conviction of second-degree murder carries with it a mandatory life sentence and Nick Barber, Crown counsel, sought parole ineligibility for 15 years while Glen Orris and Robyn Young, defence counsel, sought 10 years.
Laroche was initially charged with first-degree murder, but in his July ruling, Baird said that the threshold for first-degree murder hadn't been met. As Laroche acted after hearing an owl hoot 鈥� she saw it as a sign 鈥� the judge deemed it a spontaneous crime, as opposed to pre-meditated. At the same time, the judge said it wasn't an act of self-defence, as Mantee was asleep and not an immediate threat.
Sentencing began Jan. 31.
More to come.
