2012 saw the conviction of a former Los Angeles police detective for the murder of her ex-boyfriend’s wife, over 20 years after Sherri Rasmussen was killed in her condo in Southern California.
However, parole officers determined last month that Stephanie Lazarus, the former detective who received a sentence ranging from 27 years to life in prison, is qualified for parole. The woman who concealed the murder’s truth and carried on serving as a law enforcement officer for more than 20 years could go free, which infuriates Rasmussen’s family.
Currently incarcerated southeast of Los Angeles, Lazarus, sixty-three, entered a not guilty plea during her trial and did not publicly acknowledge her involvement in the 1986 killing until November’s parole suitability hearing.
16, as reported by two family members present at the hearing.
Sherri Rasmussen’s older sister, Connie Rasmussen, stated in her family’s first interview following the ruling that although Lazarus admitted killing Sherri at the hearing, she did not offer an apology to the family and seemed to minimize the gravity of the crime, claiming that she had not planned on killing Sherri when she went to the Van Nuys condo on February 24, 1986.
Connie stated that although Lazarus was found guilty of first-degree murder, she seemed to characterize her offense as manslaughter.
According to authorities, Sherri, a nursing director at a hospital in the Los Angeles area, was struck in the head by a ceramic vase and shot three times in the chest with a.38 pistol. There was also biting on her left arm.
Connie, 69, expressed her shock at the parole panel’s ruling. “Sherri wasn’t deserving of death; she was that person who was giving back to the community. She also merits justice.
She declared, “It is not justice for my sister to release Lazarus now.” It’s an additional blow to the face.
Jessica Pannell, 35, Connie’s daughter, said at the parole hearing, “She had 23 years to lie, to hide the evidence, and to go on with her life when she could have turned herself in.”
Lazarus said that she had been afraid of being discovered when a parole commissioner questioned her about why she had not turned herself in, particularly since she had taken an oath as a law enforcement official, Pannell
The parole panel’s ruling is not final. The entire board will review it in 120 days, and the governor will have 30 days to comment on decisions that have been made.
A request for comment from Lazarus’s attorney was not answered.
According to a spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which is in charge of the Board of Parole Hearings, Lazarus was appearing before the parole board for the first time on November 16.
According to the spokesperson, Mary Xjimenez, she was arrested in 2009 and was given more than four years of pre-sentencing credit for time served while awaiting trial.
According to Xjimenez, if Lazarus’ parole is approved, she won’t be released before July of next year, which is when she is at least eligible for parole.
Governor Gavin Newsom of California’s office said through a spokesman that the case had not yet reached his desk.
“If so, a thorough review will be conducted,” the representative stated.
Pannell recalled that the presiding commissioner had stated at the start of the November hearing that Lazarus was citing a 2018 California law designed to change the way the criminal justice system handles offenders who were under 26 at the time of their crimes.
The statute refers to rulings from state and federal high courts that examined data demonstrating that a person’s behavior control-related brain regions do not fully develop until their mid-to late-20s. With very few exceptions, those who fit the requirements “are required to have a meaningful opportunity for parole during their natural life,” as stated in California law.
When Lazarus killed Sherri, she was a junior police officer who was almost 26 years old.
Connie believes that Lazarus’s case defies the law because he has completed the police academy and been deemed fit and capable enough to carry a gun.
“But she’s still able to fulfill this prerequisite for an early release?
” stated Connie.
Requests for comments from the Department of Corrections were not answered.
Just a few months prior to her death, Sherri wed the ex-boyfriend of Lazarus.
The prosecution contended that Lazarus’s murder of Sherri was motivated by jealousy. Her sister remembered Sherri as loving, kind, intelligent, and driven—she had skipped two grades and enrolled in Loma Linda University at the age of sixteen.
At first, LAPD investigators claimed that Sherri was killed in an attempted burglary; however, her family had long suspected Lazarus was responsible for the murder and encouraged them to look into her.
When the case was reopened in 2009, detectives from the department’s homicide unit compared a sample of DNA recovered from a bite mark on Sherri’s left shoulder to another sample that had been surreptitiously taken from Lazarus’ soda straw.
Lazarus was detained and accused of murder after the samples were found to match.
During a trial that lasted almost a month, Lazarus’s attorney claimed that the DNA evidence had been tampered with. She refuted the accusations, telling the investigators that she couldn’t believe they were putting her under such duress.
