EDMONTON -- The local lawyer who pleaded guilty to killing her boyfriend in a west Edmonton home in 2017 has been sentenced to five years in prison.
Laurie Cunningham, who was 60 years old at the time, was charged with second-degree murder after Mark Huemer, 59, was stabbed to death on Nov. 7.
On Monday, Cunningham pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Cunningham told court she and Huemer had been drinking that night — she was also on sleeping pills, according to the agreed statement of facts — and her boyfriend asked her to marry him. Cunningham said yes and both were "over the moon."
She testified Huemer wanted to have sex, but she did not. According to Cunningham, Huemer got mad and violent and told her to get out of the house.
Cunningham said Huemer pushed her against the wall, and she hit him and scratched him in an effort to leave, but then the man punched her in the face and she fell to the floor.
Cunningham testified while Huemer was on the phone, Cunningham grabbed a kitchen knife and told him she wanted to go home. Cunningham claims she didn't want to hurt him.
Laurie Cunningham used this 20-centimetre knife to stab her boyfriend, Mark Huemer, in his kitchen.
She told court she forgets what happened next.
Just after 9:30 p.m., police responded to Huemer's home in the area of 178 Street and 87 Avenue and found Cunningham passed out, lying on top of a knife, and Huemer in a nearby room bleeding out.
As it turns out, Huemer had been on the phone with 911 when Cunningham stabbed him in the abdomen. The judge said Huemer, who claimed Cunningham was drunk and had hit him, was calm with the operator.
Huemer was then heard saying "she stabbed me."
Cunningham used a 20-centimetre chef's knife and Huemer suffered an 11-centimetre injury in the abdomen, according to the agreed statement of facts.
The judge called it a "senseless crime," and said Cunningham had a "high moral culpability in relation to these events."
The crown was seeking a six-year sentence, while the defence wanted three years.
