Woman to Be Sentenced for Killing her Mother in Woodland Hills

Sentencing is set today for a 27-year-old woman who pleaded no contest to the February 2013 shooting death of her mother in Woodland Hills.

Laura Purviance -- whose trial had been set to begin this week -- pleaded no contest Tuesday to first-degree murder for the Feb. 13, 2013, killing of her 61-year-old mother, Caroline, and admitted a gun use allegation, according to Jane Robison of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

Purviance’s mother, who was a special education teacher in the William S. Hart Union School District, was found dead inside her home in the 5600 block of Mason Avenue on Feb. 14, 2013.

Her daughter was arrested Feb. 22, 2013, by Oregon state troopers at the Valley of the Rogue rest area along Interstate 5, about 13 miles north of Medford, Oregon, and booked four days later by Los Angeles police.

Purviance is facing 50 years to life in state prison.

She could have faced a maximum of life in prison without the possibility of parole if her case had gone to trial and if she had been convicted of first-degree murder and if jurors had found true the special circumstance allegation of murder while lying in wait. That allegation is expected to be dismissed when she is sentenced, according to Robison.

City News Service