A lawyer argued in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver that a Nanaimo woman who killed her boyfriend and scattered his remains should not be guilty of first degree murder.
Paris Laroche, 28, is being tried in a Vancouver court for the first-degree murder and interference with human remains in the March 2020 killing of Sidney Mantee, 32. It was heard in trial that she hit him with a hammer while he slept and then cut up and got rid of parts in popular city parks over six months.
Her lawyer, Glen Orris, said that Laroche was under constant threat of death for her family, friends, her cats, and herself because of Mantee’s threats and her belief he would carry them out. This was a part of the defence evidence from the trial two months ago.
He mentioned cases of women who were acquitted under the battered spouse defence, which was first used in Canada in 1986 when Angelique Lavallee was found not guilty for shooting her abusive partner in the head after a psychiatrist testified she felt Lavallee would be killed if she didn’t fight back.
But its successful use is rare. Women in abusive relationships may be more likely to plead to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
The fact that Laroche, a small woman, killed the heavier and larger Mantee and then had to deal with the body and purchase tools for the dismembering, shows she didn’t really think out her plan to kill him,
He said the charge of manslaughter would be more appropriate than first degree murder. Manslaughter is considered a more spontaneous act and carries no minimum sentence when a gun isn’t involved and offenders can be granted parole of between seven and 10 years.
But Crown prosecutor Nick Barber in his closing arguments recounted several statements by Laroche that indicated she had been planning the killing for months, admitted it to a close friend, a boss, two undercover police officers who befriended her, and others that she had killed him, and hadn’t always shown remorse or spoke of abuse.
Barber also noted that while Mantee slept, Laroche killed him using tools she had purchased, then spent months dismembering the body and disposing of pieces in various locations after the killing.
The trial is scheduled to sit on Friday for one last day.
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