NORTH PLATTE, Neb. — An 80-year-old woman who said she had been abused for more than 50 years by her husband was found guilty of murdering him while he slept and was sentenced to serve eight to 10 years in prison on Monday.
While Lavetta Langdon confessed to investigators that she shot her husband Larry Langdon twice in the head as he slept, her attorney argued that she had been tortured and isolated by him for decades, KNOP reported.
“She will always carry the trauma of that day and for the past 60 years,” attorney Brian Davis said. “She never shared some details of her story and, unfortunately, had to tell it here.”
Lavetta Langdon detailed some of the abuse she endured to doctors. She said she had been forced to eat dog food nude in front of her four daughters. She said she called authorities over the years but never got help. At one point, she even fled to Georgia with her daughters.
Red Willow County Judge David Urbom sentenced her to eight to 10 years in prison. She will be possible for parole in four years.
“I have to consider what is fair to you, protect the public, and rehabilitate you,” Urbom said. “I have to consider many factors: age, criminal history, education, etc. Involuntarily manslaughter carries a maximum of 20 years. There is no question that you, Lavetta, suffer from battery women’s syndrome. No question that you lived in hell, but my review of reports and security camera footage sees the murder unjustified. Your attorney argued domestic violence. The bottom line — you killed a man in cold blood. There is no way I can put you on probation. No one deserved to be murdered. Any less of a sentence I would impose would not be good.”
Eugene Langdon, Larry Langdon’s brother, was at the sentencing hearing in support of Lavetta Langdon.
“I know what my brother was like ,and he was not a nice person,” he told KNOP. “He had a dual personality. He had a public personality, and he would make people think he was high, mighty and a great person. You take him back home, and he was the monster you all hear about in your closets. I feel like when you live through years of hell, which Lavetta did, it is very heartbreaking for her to go through more years of hell.”