2 Imprisoned for Murder Freed as Killer Is Convicted
A man and a woman who served four years for a 1990 strangling were released from prison Monday, three weeks after the “Happy Face Killer” was convicted of the crime.
“There’s no longer any doubt that these two individuals are innocent. The evidence is compelling,” Circuit Judge Paul Lipscomb said.
Laverne Pavlinac, 62, and her former boyfriend, John Sosnovske, 42, went free two months after Keith Hunter Jesperson confessed to the strangling of Taunja Bennett. He was convicted of the murder on Nov. 2.
Jesperson was nicknamed the Happy Face Killer for the smiling faces he drew on letters claiming responsibility for eight murders.
“I’m happy to be with my family and my grandchildren,” Pavlinac said after her release. “I’m real, real sorry that this whole thing happened.”
Pavlinac told police she helped Sosnovske kill Bennett and dispose of her body. But at her trial, she recanted, saying that she had lied to try to escape an abusive relationship with Sosnovske.
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