EDMONTON – One day shy of her 38th birthday, a woman has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the 2013 homicide of an Edmonton senior who was found beaten, bound and gagged in his home.
Trinna Sowan was originally charged last year with first degree murder in the death of 67-year-old Lawrence Semeniuk. In court the Crown said it’s believed he suffocated. Semeniuk was found face down, with his legs and hands bound.
On Thursday Sowan plead guilty to the reduced charge of mauslaughter, and was sentenced to eight years behind bars. With time already served (39 months), she will actually serve four years and nine months.
Semeniuk’s body was discovered the morning of June 13, 2013 in the Norwood Golden Manor, a seniors assisted living building located at 95 Street and 117 Avenue.
Months later police identified a person of interest in connection to the homicide, releasing the image of a woman taken from a security camera, captured at around the time of the homicide.
In January 2014, then 36-year-old Trinna Lynn Sowan and then-28-year-old Donald Albert Kleppe (aka Donald/Donnie Emberg) were charged with first-degree murder and forcible confinement.
Last year Kleppe plead guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter.
Police said Semeniuk and one of the two charged individuals were known to each other.
“This was not a random attack,” said the lead investigator on the case, Det. Dave Monson, said at the time.
“Mr. Semeniuk was with the two accused in his suite and that one of the accused was an acquaintance of his. There was an altercation which resulted in Mr. Semeniuk being beaten, bound, gagged and died as a result of his injuries.”
Police say Semeniuk was a retired farmer from the Grassland, Alberta area.
More to come…
With files from Kendra Slugoski, Global News