HALIFAX — A Chicago-area woman who came to Halifax to go on a planned Valentine's Day shooting rampage at a mall has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for a decade.
American Lindsay Souvannarath pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit murder in a plan she concocted with a young Halifax man that would have seen them open fire at the Halifax Shopping Centre food court in February 2015.
Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Peter Rosinski told the court Friday she is and will remain a danger to public safety.
The judge said Souvannarath has not expressed remorse for her murderous plot, nor has she renounced her ideological motivations for the conspiracy.
In his decision, he called her prospects for rehabilitation "very questionable" and said she needs to be separated from society until concerns can be satisfactorily addressed.
Rosinski said he is satisfied that had the plot not been interrupted by an anonymous tip and the quick actions of local police — her co-conspirator, James Gamble, killed himself as police surrounded his Halifax-area home — the plan would have been carried out.
"Coming upon unsuspecting members of the public at the mall that day, what carnage would they have inflicted with a 16-gauge shotgun with 23 shells; a .308 calibre lever-action rifle with 13 shells; and a knife to finish off the wounded?"
The judge added: "Ms. Souvannarath's intention was to kill more than the 13 people who suffered that fate at the Columbine High School shooting," he wrote, referring to her obsession with the massacre in Littleton, Colo.
Kate Battan, the lead investigator of the 1999 shooting who wrote a report for the Crown highlighting parallels between the school shooting and this case, called it "ironic" that Friday's sentencing took place on the 19th anniversary of the Columbine shooting.
"My impression is that they were all in and this was not a joke," she said in an interview. "At some point this became real, this was going to happen."
The judge shared that view, telling the court that the "plan had been set in motion" as soon as Souvannarath boarded a plane for Halifax.
The spectre of shooters opening fire in a busy mall threatened thousands of shoppers and workers and unsettled the city for months.
In fact, Rosinski cited the explicit intention to create mass panic and undermine the community's sense of security and peace of mind as an aggravating factor in the sentencing.
"They intended to maximize dead and wounded casualties," the judge wrote.
"That they intended to be mocking, callous and brutal in their treatment of potential victims they encountered is an aggravating factor."
He said his sentencing was in part shaped by the principles that apply to terrorism offences.
While the judge said the motivations and intentions in the case aren't precisely the same as terrorism activities, he said the crime requires the court to "send a clear message" to people conspiring to kill multiple people.
Souvannarath and others who might follow in her footsteps "must be sent the message that those who choose to pursue such deadly plans will pay a very heavy price," he wrote.
The woman from suburban Chicago has been ordered to provide a sample of her DNA and will be subjected to a firearms prohibition for 10 years after her release from prison. He gave her credit for three years served in custody, so she will be eligible for parole in seven years.
Although the judge has recommended intensive psychological and psychiatric counselling and treatment, the sentence of life in prison means the 26-year-old could spend the rest of her days behind bars.
A third accomplice — a local man described in court as the "cheerleader" of the plot — was previously sentenced to a decade in jail.
At the sentencing hearing Monday, Rosinski called it a "very unusual and difficult case."
When he asked Souvannarath if she would like to address the court prior to sentencing, the 26-year-old said: "I decline."
Before delivering sections of his decision orally in court Friday, the judge entered new letters from Souvannarath's parents and grandparents as exhibits in the case.
The parents of both Souvannarath and Gamble were in court for the sentencing hearing, but declined interview requests.
Souvannarath has been held at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional facility in a Halifax-area industrial park since her arrest. Her lawyer has said she will likely be transferred to a women's institution in southern Ontario after sentencing.
The judge noted that the college graduate has been called a quiet prisoner who keeps to herself, participates in Books behind Bars, and was enrolled in a humanities course offered by Dalhousie University.
