Murder Confession Lets Two Prisoners Off Hook

Five years ago, LaVerne Pavlinac made up a story about how she and her abusive boyfriend raped and strangled a woman and left her body in an isolated river gorge.

She told the story to get the boyfriend off her back.

But police believed her. A jury believed her. Her boyfriend pleaded no contest to avoid the death penalty, and they’ve been in prison ever since.

Friday, she was awaiting word on whether she will gain her freedom now that a stranger has divulged details only the killer could have known.

The lawyers, judge and jury did nothing wrong and the evidence was sufficient for a conviction, District Attorney Michael Schrunk has said.

But he told Circuit Judge Paul Lipscomb on Thursday there is considerable evidence that Pavlinac, 62, and John Sosnovske were wrongly convicted in 1991 of murdering 23-year-old Taunja Bennett. The judge is to rule Monday.

A man who claims he has killed eight women in the past five years was taken to the scene of Bennett’s slaying, and gave police details that even included helping find her purse, Schrunk said.

Keith Jesperson, a 40-year-old interstate trucker, is imprisoned in Washington, awaiting sentencing for kidnapping, raping and strangled a woman in March. He faces up to life in prison on last week’s guilty plea.

Prosecutors say they will charge Jesperson with Bennett’s death and investigators are looking into his other claims.

“It was kind of like a miracle to me,” Pavlinac said. “These things don’t happen except in the movies.”

At her trial in January 1991, Pavlinac told jurors the story was all a ruse. She said she made up the tale to try to get away from Sosnovske, whom she said abused her during their 10-year relationship.

But prosecutors played a tape of her confession, and she was convicted.

The threat of that tape also led Sosnovske to plead no contest to murder in order to avoid the death penalty. Sosnovske, 48, was not available for interviews, prison officials said.