BC Court Says A Woman Created An 'Elaborately Concocted Alibi' After A Deadly Hit & Run
She hit and killed a 73-year-old.
A woman in B.C. attempted to appeal her sentence for a hit-and-run that killed a 73-year-old and was denied by the courts, which said that she had an "elaborately concocted alibi."
A judge for the B.C. Court of Appeal said that the convicted woman's alibi included lies and fabricated letters.
A recent judgment said that Linnea Louise Labbee was convicted of "failing to stop at the scene of an accident," and "sentenced to two years less a day of jail, followed by two years of probation."
Labbee attempted to appeal her sentence, claiming that it was unfit due to two errors made during her trial. She contended the judge failed "to give sufficient weight to her health issues" and shouldn't have treated her "disbelieved testimony" as an "aggravating factor." Labbee was arguing for a conditional sentence order or an incarceration period of only nine months.
The hit-and-run
The incident happened on December 1, 2016, at about 12 p.m., when Labbee was driving in Chilliwack, B.C.
The judgment said that she hit and killed a 73-year-old named Fourghozaman Firoozian, who was in a crosswalk. It added that the collision was an accident and that Labbee was driving below the speed limit.
According to the judgment, Labbee then proceeded to drive "over top of the victim" before stopping her truck and looking at them, "lying motionless on the ground."
Next, Labbee drove away from the scene, leaving the victim, and went straight to a mall.
Her alibi
Although she fled the scene, Labbee was arrested by police. The judgment said that she told "an elaborate story," in two statements.
Her alibi stated that she was at the mall all day when the hit-and-run occurred. She also suggested that a woman outside the mall, who panhandled, stole her truck from the parking lot.
"She maintained her false alibi in the several years leading up to trial, even forging letters from fictional witnesses and a bank manager to support it," the judgment added.
Labbee kept up her alibi during the trial and her testimony.
The judgment said that she also "falsely accused the police of serious misconduct."
Reasons for the dismissal
A judge dismissed the appeal on May 4, 2022, and said Labbee did not give adequate evidence concerning her medical conditions and that the conditions were in fact taken into consideration in her sentencing.
The judgment said that the judge at Labbee's original trial "did not rely on the appellant’s misleading testimony at trial as aggravating."
The Court of Appeal found that the judge who imposed Labbee's sentence did not make any errors, and therefore upheld it.