Woman appeals life sentence in Halifax Valentine’s Day mall shooting plot

Chicago-area woman pleaded guilty last year

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, the Chicagoarea woman 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.

Souvannarath provides five grounds of appeal, including 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 that Supreme Court Justice Peter Rosinski offended the principle of parity by imposing a dramatically lengthier sentence on her than on co-conspirator Randall Shepherd.

Souvannarath pleaded guilty last year, several 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-yearold James Gamble, was found dead in his Halifax-area home a day before the planned attack.