A Nanaimo woman has been found guilty of second-degree murder and interfering with human remains in the death of her former partner.
Paris Laroche was convicted Friday in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver in the March 2020 killing of 32-year-old Sidney Mantee.
During the trial, court heard Laroche hit Mantee in the head with a hammer and slit his throat while he slept. She kept his body in their apartment and dismembered his remains over months before disposing of body parts in Nanaimo city parks and in the ocean.
Laroche confessed to the killing to undercover officers who posed as family members wanting revenge against Mantee for abusing their fictitious sister and daughter.
Her defence lawyers told the court Mantee had threatened to kill her and she lived in constant fear for her life, arguing a manslaughter charge would be more appropriate than a first-degree murder charge, which requires proven premeditation.
Laroche had been charged with first-degree murder, but Justice Robin Baird found her guilty of the lesser charge of second-degree murder.
A conviction of second-degree murder means Baird found Laroche intended to kill Mantee but it was not planned. It carries a minimum sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years.
Baird said that while some of the facts pointed to Laroche’s intention to kill Mantee, he wasn’t convinced it was planned, calling it “more spontaneous than planned or deliberate,” CHEK News reported.
He rejected the argument of self-defence. “The evidence in its totality satisfies me beyond a reasonable doubt that she did not kill Mantee for the purpose of defending herself,” said Baird, pointing out that Laroche used an offensive weapon to kill Mantee when she knew he was unconscious.
“I find that this killing was an act of vengeance, probably fuelled by a multitude of past transgressions, but in particular because she thought Mantee had harmed her cat the night before.”
On July 24, the justice will consider setting a date for sentencing.
