New Hampshire woman sentenced to life without parole for killing "boyfriends"

Shelia Labarre, a 49 year old New Hampshire woman who murdered her two “boyfriends,” was sentenced to life without parole in a Brentwood, NH courtroom on Friday, June 20. She was found burining trash which contained a victim, 24 year old Kenneth Countie’s, bones in 2006.

The remains of her other victim, Michael Deloge, were also found on her horse farm in Epping, NH, 50 miles north of Boston.

Her trial, which lasted 5 weeks, included defense arguments that LaBarre was a deluded woman who believes she was an angel sent to kill every man in her life because they were pedophiles, but the prosecution portrayed her as a cruel manipulative, and vindictive woman who lashed out at every man she dated.

In February, LaBarre admitted to killing both men, so jurors had to decide only whether a mental illnesses drove her to do it.

Throughout the trial, jurors heard evidence that LaBarre was an explosively violent woman who terrorized nearly everyone in her life. Defense attorneys argued the behavior, and ultimately the killings, were the product of a deep psychosis left unchecked and untreated; prosecutors insisted LaBarre was nothing more than a mean, sadistic woman who liked to prey on weak men for her own pleasure.

Neither side denied LaBarre's behavior went unchecked for decades, and both said LaBarre might have gotten away with Deloge's murder if investigators hadn't come to her farm as she was in the final stages of burning Countie's body. That visit was prompted by repeated pleas from Lodge, who filed missing-person reports and prodded police to go find her son.

Defense lawyer Jeffrey Denner said he plans to appeal.

"It continues to be our belief that she's deeply crazy and insane," he said. "We also understand there's a huge amount of emotion in this case that clouds this issue."

Dr. Albert Drukteinis, the state's forensic psychologist, testified that he believed LaBarre was sane, after reviewing more than 8,000 pages in the case file, interviewing LaBarre three times and spending more than 12 hours with her.

"She answered questions well, she tried to explain evidence away that made her look bad. This is not what someone sees over many hours in a person who is psychotic," Drukteinis testified
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He said there was not enough evidence to show that a mental illness caused LaBarre to commit her crimes. The burden of proof was on the defense to show both that LaBarre suffered from a mental disease and that the murders were a product of that illness.

In a taped interview with Drukteinis played in court, LaBarre said she was driven to kill Deloge because he was hurting and killing her animals. In a separate interview, she said Countie's death was an accident.

Jurors also heard some of the hundreds of tape recordings LaBarre made of herself, some of which featured her interrogating or berating her victims. Malcolm Rogers, a forensic psychologist who testified for the defense, said those tapes illustrated that LaBarre has either a schizophrenic affect disorder or a delusional disorder that caused her to mistakenly believe the men were pedophiles and to kill them.

Rogers also said LaBarre believes she once died of a drug overdose but was sent back to Earth as an angel with special powers.

Ironically, the influence that LaBarre had on one of the victims was similar to that that a pedophile has on his victims.

LaBarre met, then groomed Kenneth Countie online in February 2006, and in the month between when Ken met LaBarre and his death,his mother, Carolynn Lodge, noticed her evil influence on him. Ken, according to his mother, was a socially awkward young man who mistook other’s attention to him as friendship when it was far too often, a way to take advantage of him.

"Throughout my son's short life, he endured the cruelty of many of his peers, believing they were his friends. Unfortunately, Kenny was never able to determine when someone was taking advantage of him. When Kenny met Sheila LaBarre, he believed her when she said she wanted to be with him. In Kenny's mind, he was going to live a new life on the farm. A new beginning."

LaBarre was Countie’s final perpetrator. Ken was last seen alive by his mother pushed in a wheelchair at a local Wal-Mart a month after he met laBarre, his face and hands covered with cuts.

"Sheila LaBarre took advantage of my son, who was a kind, caring, gentle young man who could not socially defend himself. She was a master of evil who deliberately tortured him. Sheila LaBarre stripped my son of all his dignity and self-worth before murdering him.”
After the verdict, Lodge said that the son that she lost has finally gained rest.
"This is for my son. [For] two years, my son could not rest. Now he can rest."