The Court of Appeal also delivered a majority verdict for the convicted murderer Jason Bruce Lawrence, who has been serving a life sentence for killing his common-law wife. The Appeal Court has set aside his conviction for murder, and they have entered him into a guilty verdict for manslaughter instead.
In May of 2014, Lawrence was convicted of murder for the stabbing death of his common-law wife, 40 year-old Mercedes Carrillo. On December 4, 2009, Carrillo was found dead inside their Burrell Boom home; she had been stabbed 5 times to the body. The couple got into an argument after Carillo received a phone call, and it escalated to the point where Lawrence attacked her.
His attorneys, Yohhanseh Cave, and Illiana Swift, appealed that verdict of guilty for murder, and today the Court of Appeal ruled that he is guilty, instead, of manslaughter. They say that this is a case where Lawrence has diminished responsibility for his actions. His life sentence has been set aside, and a new prison sentence of 18 years, minus time already served, and time on remand has been substituted instead.
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