Woman appeals life sentence
HALIFAX • An American woman who plotted to go on a Valentine’s Day shooting spree at a Halifax mall is appealing her sentence of life in prison, calling it “manifestly harsh and excessive.”
Lindsay Souvannarath was sentenced in April after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in a plan that would have seen two shooters open fire at the Halifax Shopping Centre food court in 2015.
A motion to set a date for the appeal hearing is expected to be considered next week by Justice David Farrar of the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal.
In her notice of appeal, Souvannarath argues that her sentence of life imprisonment with no chance of parole for 10 years should be revised to a fixed sentence of 12 to 14 years.
The Chicago-area woman provides five grounds for appeal, including suggesting that the presiding judge committed an error by imposing a burden on her to prove she was remorseful and had “renounced antisocial beliefs.”
She also argues Supreme Court Justice Peter Rosinski was wrong to compare the conspiracy to a terrorism offence.
The 26-year-old woman added that the judge offended the principle of parity by imposing a dramatically lengthier sentence on her than on co-conspirator Randall Shepherd.
Souvannarath pleaded guilty last year, months after Shepherd — a Halifax man described in court as the “cheerleader” of the foiled shooting plot — was sentenced to a decade in jail.
A third alleged conspirator, 19-year-old James Gamble, was found dead in his Halifax-area home a day before the planned attack.
The conspiracy can be traced back to December 2014, when Souvannarath and Gamble began an online relationship.
Thousands of Facebook messages between the two provide details of the conspiracy — a plot she nicknamed “Der Untergang” — a Valentine’s Day shooting rampage at a Halifax mall.
The massacre was to end with their own suicides.
Souvannarath left her home in Geneva, Ill., on Feb. 13, 2015, and flew to Halifax on a one-way ticket.
But the plan began to fall apart before she landed in Nova Scotia.
Acting on a tip, police surrounded Gamble’s home outside Halifax. He agreed to come outside, but instead shot himself in the head.
Meanwhile, Shepherd went to the airport to meet Souvannarath, but was arrested while waiting.