Published: May 02, 2008 10:59 am            

LaSala asks for revision to sentence

PRINCETON — Four years after she stabbed her father to death, Kayla LaSala appeared again in Mercer County Circuit Court Thursday and asked Judge Derek Swope to temper her sentence and order a supervised release in Raleigh County.

Just four years into a 25-year sentence imposed by retired Judge John Frazier, LaSala and her counsel, Elizabeth French, sought a revised treatment plan that would have allowed the 18-year-old to live in Unity Hall, a Methodist-based home for offenders striving to re-enter society after incarceration. While there, French argued LaSala could learn valuable life skills, continue counseling and attend Mountain State Univer-sity.

“The focus today is the rehabilitation progress Kayla has made,” French said, telling the court her client has made “great strides” since early 2005, when she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in her father’s death.

French urged the court to take a “higher road” than imposing the remainder of LaSala’s sentence would allow.

“Look at her as a person and what she has done since she was admitted to the industrial home,” French said.

But, for the family members left behind to mourn when Stephen Michael “Mike” LaSala died, the rehabilitation didn’t mean much. They still described Kayla LaSala as a deceitful, manipulative psychopath who killed her father and built an abuse story to serve as an excuse.

Angelina LaSala Stroupe addressed Swope, pleading with him to keep Kayla LaSala behind bars and hand her family the only piece of justice its members could find in the loss of their loved one.

“It’s not justice for her to spend four years in a juvenile facility for these vicious, malicious things she done,” Stroupe said. “...She robbed us of precious time with him. She showed no mercy as she stabbed him to death.”

Stroupe said she doubted LaSala would ever be a responsible member of society, in light of her past actions.

The LaSala case opened when emergency personnel responded to a 911 call on Feb. 23, 2004 and found Mike LaSala fatally wounded in the doorway of his home on Country Girl Road. Medical examiners counted 107 stab wounds on the man’s body, 63 of them in his back.

Kayla LaSala reported in the 911 call that an intruder had stabbed her father, who then tossed her the keys to the family truck and told her to leave. But, a cut on her hand led MCSD Lt. A.D. Beasley to question how it got there.

As the investigation unfolded, suspicion turned to Kayla LaSala, then 14 years old and living with her father while her mother served time behind bars on drug charges in Virginia. As more questions were asked, LaSala alleged she had stabbed her father when he attempted to molest her.

She was charged soon after Mercer County Sheriff’s Department opened the case, but she was allowed to remain on home confinement with family members in the Mercer County area.

On July 3, 2004, she temporarily foiled the system when she cut the monitoring bracelet and glued it to the family cat, buying her just enough time to climb out a window and flee to Florida with an adult male she met on the Internet. The teen and the man she ran away with remained on the lam until July 13, 2004, when authorities tracked him down at his workplace and traced the murder suspect back to his home.

Thursday, Swope and Dr. David Clayman both expressed concern that LaSala was again involved in a relationship with an inappropriate man, this time, one who was incarcerated. Although Swope declined to detail her actions due to their personal nature, the judge said efforts in January to skirt the system and get mail to a man she wasn’t allowed to communicate with troubled him greatly.

“This case started with deceit and dishonesty,” Swope said, referring to the 911 call and allegations of an intruder.

The trail of lies continued when LaSala fled home confinement, and the judge said he worried the attempts to get mail to the off-limits man was yet another sign that LaSala wasn’t ready to live free in society. In fact, he said he had evidence she was still manipulating the system as recently as January.

“I cannot take that kind of risk in a crime like this,” he said.

Originally charged with first-degree murder, LaSala ultimately opted to plead guilty to second-degree murder in early 2005. In April of that year, Circuit Court Judge John Frazier handed down a 25-year sentence.

The first four years were served in Salem Institutional Home, where Swope ordered she would remain until her high school graduation. At that time, the West Virginia Department of Corrections will determine the best placement for her.

For her part, LaSala told the court she was sorry for killing her father, but that she was the only one who knew what went on between the two.

“I know everything I’ve done, but I know everything I’ve been through, too,” she said.

— Contact Tammie Toler at ttoler@ptonline.net.

        

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