Phoenix Woman Receives 10-Year Sentence For Son’s Shooting Death

PHOENIX – Wendy Lavarnia of Phoenix was sentenced to 10 years in prison in connection with the shooting death of her 9-year-old son Landen in March 2017. Wendy Lavarnia said she put a loaded gun on the bed that day, where her kids could reach it, and looked away to get something when Landen was shot dead. Wendy Lavarnia claimed her 2-year-old pulled the trigger, but authorities are still not sure who did the gun firing, according to an account by U.S. News & World Report.

In 2018, Kansas Lavarnia, Wendy’s husband, told The Arizona Republic not long before his Father’s Day 2018 suicide that he was home at the time of the shooting but had left the house quickly afterwards because of a previous criminal record that prohibited him from gun possession. He also said that his 2-year-old shot him, and that the bullet fragmented in his arm. The bullet fragments then came out of his arm and one hit his 9-year-old in the head, killing him, he added.

A month ago at Wendy Lavarnia’s plea hearing, she admitted responsibility in Landen’s death for “recklessly” putting a loaded gun where children could reach it. She still maintains that she didn’t shoot the gun though.

Wendy Lavarnia recently made a plea deal to face manslaughter rather than first-degree murder charges, and her child abuse charges were reduced to attempted child abuse. The other charges were dismissed on condition of her plea.

Superior Court Justice Geoffrey Fish, who sentenced Wendy Lavarnia, said he still doesn’t really know what happened at the Lavarnia house that day, but he gave Wendy Lavarnia the most lenient sentence possible of 10 years. “I do recognize there was certainly no intention to harm the children,” he said, mentioning that the shooting that resulted from her actions is something she will have to carry with her the rest of her life.

Read the full story at U.S. News & World Report.