Leibel sentenced to life, no chance of parole

Murder, torture and mutilation of Iana Kasian

Blake Leibel was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday with no chance of parole for the murder, torture and mutilation of Iana Kasian, the mother of his newborn daughter.

In imposing the life sentence, Judge Mark Windham said the case was unusual due to “the savagery, the defendant’s profound brutality and his inconceivable cruelty.”

Leibel, the Canadian heir who spent his 20s and 30s chasing success as a film producer and graphic novelist in Hollywood, sat in the Los Angeles courtroom on Tuesday in a neon yellow prison jumpsuit. He was wide-eyed, looking more alert and concerned than he had through most of the trial. He whispered to his lawyer, public defender Haydeh Takasugi, after she declined to object or offer comment on the sentence when Judge Windham gave her the opportunity.

“He got what he deserved,” Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman told National Post.

The prosecution opted not to seek the death penalty in the case, in part because Leibel didn’t have a prior criminal record but also because of the massive backlog of inmates awaiting execution in California.

“We seek death in, you know, relatively few cases,” Silverman said, “given the fact that nobody’s been put to death in over a decade and there’s seven hundred and forty-something on death row right now.”

Kasian’s mother, Olga, who has custody of Kasian’s and Leibel’s child, read a victim impact statement at Tuesday’s hearing, repeatedly calling Leibel a monster.

“He took away the most precious thing that a baby could have,” Olga Kasian said through a translator. “This monster ruined our lives, ruined the lives of his family, lives of his sons, of his newborn daughter — who looks like him, like a spitting copy.”

Leibel’s brother Cody sat in the back of the courtroom, next to Leibel’s former wife and mother to his two sons, Amanda Braun.

Throughout Leibel’s trial in Los Angeles this month, prosecutors described Kasian’s killing in gruesome detail, telling jurors that Leibel scalped her and drained her blood while she was alive because he was jealous of the attention she was paying to their daughter, born weeks earlier. It took jurors roughly three hours to find Leibel guilty of first-degree murder, torture and aggravated assault.

Judge Windham on Tuesday gave Leibel a life sentence without parole for the first-degree murder charge. Leibel received extra life sentences for the torture and aggravated mayhem convictions, though the judge stayed both.

Leibel’s daughter, now a toddler, is living with Kasian’s family in Ukraine. After the verdict last week, Kasian’s mother, who adamantly sat through days of gruesome evidence, told a news conference that she wished Leibel’s wealthy Toronto family had at least offered condolences sometime after the 2016 murder. “There was none,” she said through an interpreter.

The interpreter continued: “(Olga is) going to raise her own granddaughter — who’s part of her daughter Iana, part of her blood — and she’s going to give her all the love, all the care that she can.”

At Tuesday’s sentencing hearing, Judge Windham ordered Leibel to pay US$10,000 in victim restitution. Olga Kasian, on behalf of her granddaughter, is also suing Leibel for wrongful death. He has filed a response denying the allegations.