Woman gets 5 years for role in robbery that led to death

REGINA Battling emotion as she read from a letter of apology, a 19-year-old woman talked about the remorse she has felt since a robbery she helped orchestrate led to the fatal shooting of the victim.

“Why didn’t I just walk away?” Ragan Marlee Lavallee questioned of her actions in April, when 21-year-old Sampson Thunder Goodwill-severight was killed.

Lavallee appeared at Regina Court of Queen’s Bench earlier this week, appearing to struggle at first when asked for her plea to a manslaughter charge.

Following a lengthy pause, one of her family members whispered, “Come on,” leading to her guilty plea.

Lavallee admitted she attended Goodwill-severight’s home at 1137 King St. on April 5 with the intention of buying drugs. That done, she returned home and told a man there about her buy.

Crown prosecutor Shauna Silver told the court Lavallee and the man decided to rob Goodwill- Severight for drugs. Lavallee’s accomplice, masked by a bandana, armed himself with a sawed-off .22-calibre rifle before the two headed to the victim’s house.

Once inside, the accomplice pointed the gun at Goodwill-severight, demanding, “Give me all your s---.”

“Shoot me, then,” Goodwill-severight responded.

The man holding the gun fired a single shot, hitting the victim in the chest.

Court heard Lavallee said, “You weren’t supposed to shoot him.”

Despite the fact shooting Goodwill-severight hadn’t been part of Lavallee’s plan, she pleaded guilty to manslaughter because she helped orchestrate the ill-fated robbery and had been aware her accomplice was bringing in the gun used during the incident.

Silver said Lavallee went to Regina Police Service headquarters two days later and provided a statement about her involvement.

Lavallee was just 18 at the time of the shooting and had no previous criminal record.

Defence lawyer Bruce Campbell said his client started using drugs some time prior to the incident, and Lavallee blamed her addictions and the life she’d been living for her actions.

“I thought walking away from a situation would make me look weak, but in reality it takes strength to walk away from conflict, and back then that was something I was lacking ...,” she said. “I was wearing a mask of street toughness.”

Crown and defence counsel jointly recommended a total sentence of five years less two months remand credit. Lavallee, who had been free on bail prior to the sentencing, clung to a family member before being taken into custody.

“It’s a tragic situation that we now have a 19-year-old woman who will now be spending the next five years in a custodial facility,” Silver said, adding Goodwill-severight’s family was left devastated by their loved one’s death. “They will be suffering his loss for the rest of their lives.”

The family did not provide victim impact statements.

In handing down the fiveyear term, Justice Lana Krogan referred to the profound pain the young woman’s choices have caused Goodwill-severight’s family.

“Because of your actions, you have changed the course of their lives,” she said.

Justin Christopher Ford, accused of being Lavallee’s accomplice, is still before the court.