Woman Found Guilty but Mentally Ill Gets 3 Life Terms for Mall Slayings
A woman found guilty but mentally ill for killing three people and wounding seven in a shopping mall shooting rampage was sentenced Friday to three consecutive life terms.
Delaware County Common Pleas Judge Robert Kelly rejected defense pleas that Sylvia Seegrist, 26, be given concurrent sentences and thus a chance for eventual parole.
The judge said she will be treated in institutions until she no longer is mentally ill and then will be committed to prison to finish her sentence.
“She should not be put back on the street. That would be highly inappropriate,” Kelly said.
Witnesses said Seegrist arrived at the Springfield Mall on Oct. 30, 1985, dressed in military fatigues and armed with a rifle. She killed a 2-year-old boy outside the mall, then entered spraying shots, killing a 67-year-old physician and a 64-year-old man.
The rampage ended when a college student, Jack Laufer, grabbed the rifle, thinking she was pulling a Halloween prank by firing blank rounds. Laufer has since become a Pennsylvania State Police trooper.
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