By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-11-26 20:37:25 | Updated at 2024-11-28 19:47:35
1 day ago
A Florida woman who tried to frame her own seven-year-old daughter for her husband's murder has been sentenced to life in prison.
Laurie Shaver, 41, was found guilty in September of second-degree murder after she killed her husband in 2015 and buried him under a concrete slab in Claremont, just west of Orlando.
She remained emotionless and nodded on Tuesday as a judge sentenced her to life in prison.
During her trial, Shaver took the stand and said her husband was abusive and shockingly claimed it was her daughter Isabelle, who was seven at the time, who shot Michael dead.
Prosecutors said Laurie killed her husband at their home in Claremont, just west of Orlando, in November 2015 with a gunshot to the back of his head.
Michael's body was not discovered until 2018, when officers were called to conduct a wellness check on the missing Walt Disney World employee. His remains were buried under a firepit.
Officials also said Laurie took over Michael's identity after he was dead and sent text and Facebook messages pretending to be him.
Laurie's daughter, now 15-years-old, testified in her mother's defense on Thursday claiming she shot her father to protect her mother. However, a jury did not buy the story.
Laurie Shaver remained emotionless on Tuesday as a judge sentenced her to life in prison
Michael's body was not discovered until 2018, when officers were called to conduct a wellness check on the missing Walt Disney World employee
Michael's body was not discovered until 2018, when officers were called to conduct a wellness check and his remains were buried under a firepit (pictured)
'And I grabbed her, and I grabbed her gun. And I went back out, and I went to the door. The door was already open. And he had my mom on the ground still. Still laying on the ground. Still kicking her. And I shot him,' the daughter said.
Shaver had also claimed that a man she was having an affair with, Jeremy Townsend, shot Michael a second time and disposed of his body. However, physically evidence indicates that Michael was only shot one time.
Townsend testified for the prosecution saying he had never even met Michael.
Michael's family cried tears of joy as the guilty verdict came down nearly a decade after he was murdered.
'Elation. Elation,' his sister Stacie Turner told local news outlets. 'We were very happy. This was a long time coming.'
Michael Shaver was only reported missing in February, 2018, after a friend contacted police, who made a wellbeing check on Shaver's home in Claremont. Officers noticed fresh concrete near a fire pit and asked to bring a cadaver dog.
Shaver told police she had not seen Michael since 2015.
Neighbor Curt Ruhl told Click Orlando he used to see Michael working in the yard before he 'suddenly disappeared'. Another man moved in with Laurie shortly after that, the neighbor said.
Laurie Shaver (pictured) sobbed as she was convicted of the 2015 murder of her husband
Shaver was arrested in 2020 - five years after her husband was last seen
Although the couple never divorced, other neighbors told WFTV Shaver had remarried in a ceremony near to where Michael's body was later discovered.
Over the years, police say Shaver's stories shifted constantly, and that at times she variously claimed that Michael had moved to another state, that he was in jail for non-payment of child support, and even that he was a pilot and traveled constantly for work.
Shaver was finally arrested in September, 2020.
Following her conviction, her lawyer pledged to appeal the ruling.
