Gruesome details emerge in death of woman allegedly killed by her son

<p>In his recorded statement to police, Christopher Lavis calmly describes how he killed his mother in September, stabbing her several times with a pair of kitchen shears, then finishing her off with a large knife, a Roman gladius, because he “didn’t want her to suffer.”</p><p>Then, Lavis said, he left her body where she fell in the living room and covered her with a blanket.</p><p>For the next 10 days, he said, he stayed in the condo and had pizza delivered three times as his mother’s body decomposed in the living room.</p><p>The corpse of Connie LaSalle, 63, was found on Sept. 27, about two weeks after friends last saw her and had begun to worry.</p><p>She had 45 stabbing and slicing wounds, the county’s forensic pathologist testified Friday afternoon, 15 to 20 of which were potentially fatal. Seven of 13 wounds to her upper back penetrated into her heart and lungs and could have killed her, Dr. Kelly Arthur testified.</p><p>The autopsy findings, Lavis’ statement and other testimony was presented Friday during a daylong preliminary hearing to determine if there is enough evidence to hold Lavis over for trial on murder and torture charges. Lavis has pleaded not guilty.</p><p>Judge Lawrence Antolini ruled Friday afternoon that there is enough evidence to proceed with first-degree murder charges.</p><p>But Lavis’ attorney, Amy Chapman, argued that the torture allegation isn’t appropriate.</p><p>The torture charge ratchets up the potential sentence for Lavis to death, although prosecutor Traci Carrillo said Friday afternoon her office hadn’t determined if it would pursue capital punishment.</p><p>“They presented evidence as to the unlawful killing,” Chapman conceded. “But the law is very specific as to torture.”</p><p>The law requires that Lavis intended to inflict “extreme physical pain for the calculated purpose of revenge, extortion, persuasion or any other sadistic reason,” she said.</p><p>Lavis acted to the contrary, Chapman argued.</p><p>“He certainly intended to kill her, but once he flew into the fury, he tried to end it as soon as possible,” she said, echoing Lavis’ statements to police. “He didn’t want her to suffer.”</p><p>Lavis was arrested Oct. 10 in San Francisco, where he acknowledged he had fled about 10 days after killing his mother.</p><p>Once police brought him back in Santa Rosa, he freely and coolly told detectives what happened. He said his mother was angry at him and didn’t want him staying at the condo any longer.</p><p>“I did it. I killed her. I just want to let you know that,” he told Detective Mark Mahre at the beginning of a four-hour interview.</p><p>“I got furious,” he said later. “I lost control.”</p><p>He said he’d become homeless and had nowhere else to go. After spending the night in the condo he was co-owner of, his mother told him to get out. She was angry and attacked him, he said, with an aluminum foil box and a teapot and then scissors.</p><p>“I was angry, in a rage,” he said. “I’d already started it, so I wanted it to end fast. She wouldn’t die. She was in pain. No one wants someone to be .<th>.<th>. I just wanted it to end.”</p><p>Sitting next to his attorney Friday, Lavis cried when he heard his own description of the killing. </p><p>He told police that afterward he tried to kill himself at least three times, either by stabbing himself or taking pills. A large pool of blood was found in his bedroom.</p><p>Lavis told police that after a few days the blood from his attempted suicide began to smell bad.</p><p>“There was a terrible smell in there,” he said, “like something had died.”</p><p>He spread detergent on top of it, he said, and also used Windex to try to clean up blood spots in the living room from his mother’s killing.</p><p>When Lavis left town, he took his diabetic cat to the vet and left his mother’s back door open for another cat to come and go.</p><p>LaSalle had retired in 2005 from her job as an operations specialist at Exchange Bank.</p><p>Lavis, an unemployed computer technician, has a history of drug addiction and minor convictions. He is being held without bail.</p>