Time-served sentence proposed for woman who urged assault on boyfriend that led to murder

The lawyer for a woman who encouraged an assault on her boyfriend that led to murder should be released from jail on a time-served sentence, her lawyer argued Tuesday. 

Laura Lavorato, 46, was convicted of manslaughter in the death of her then-boyfriend Shawn McCormack, 34, following a trial in November. 

Lavorato's friend Devon Shedrick, who fatally shot McCormack, was found guilty of first-degree murder. 

While Shedrick received a life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years, Lavorato's sentencing hearing took place Tuesday before Court of King's Bench Justice Keith Yamauchi. 

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Prosecutor Peter Mackenzie asked Yamauchi to impose a seven-year sentence while defence lawyer Rebecca Snukal asked for a time-served sentence — around 2½ years — plus a period of probation. 

'I will never stop mourning'

The victim's mother, Carrie McCormack, wrote a victim impact statement describing herself as being "paralyzed" by her son's death. 

"He will never have children, get married or have the chance to get his life back on track," she wrote.

"As his mother, I will never stop mourning the life he might have had, and I will never stop wondering what might have been if he were still here."

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McCormack's body was found in a southwest alley on July 3, 2022. 

He had been shot a day earlier in Lavorato's Forest Lawn home before his body was dumped in Upper Mount Royal. 

A month before McCormack was killed, he gave Shedrick a beating to the point of hospitalization while the two men were being held at the Calgary Remand Centre. 

Shedrick and Lavorato were friends at the time, and both the Crown and defence agreed there was evidence she was the victim of domestic violence at the hands of McCormack.

'Self-help remedy'

In the days before the attack, Lavorato texted Shedrick: "Get him messed the f–k up."

Mackenzie described Lavorato as the instigator of an attack on McCormack.

"This outcome happened because Laura Lavorato engaged in a self-help remedy for a problem she was having," said the prosecutor. 

But Snukal argued her client's actions should be understood in the context as a victim of domestic violence and said Lavorato did not know the extent to which McCormack would be attacked.

"She just wanted him out of the house," said Snukal. 

Justice Yamauchi said he would aim to deliver his sentencing decision later this month.