Jury convicts Calgary pair of murder, manslaughter in case of man found dead in alley

After 18 hours of deliberations, a Calgary jury has convicted a man of first-degree murder — and his female friend of manslaughter — in the case of a victim found dead in a southwest alley.

Devon Shedrick, 31, was convicted of first-degree murder while Laura Lavorato, 46, was found guilty of manslaughter in the 2022 death of Shawn McCormack, 34.

McCormack was fatally shot and then left in an alley in the southwest community of Upper Mount Royal in June 2022.

Jurors began deliberating around 1 p.m. Monday and returned with a verdict Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. 

At the time of the killing, McCormack and Lavarado were dating. Lavorato and Shedrick were close friends.

Lavorato alleged McCormack was abusive toward her, which the Crown argued was her motive when she "prompted" Shedrick to go after him. 

Shedrick's motive, said prosecutor Peter Mackenzie, was a fight weeks earlier between the two men. Shedrick was badly beaten by McCormack while both were incarcerated at the Calgary Remand Centre.

The Crown presented evidence that McCormack was killed in Lavorato's Forest Lawn home and then dumped in the southwest alley the following day.

The prosecutor asked jurors to find that Lavorato intended to have McCormack assaulted, which would make her guilty of manslaughter. Shedrick, argued the Crown, committed a planned killing, making him guilty of first-degree murder. 

Shedrick's lawyer, Kim Ross, argued the Crown had failed to prove his client shot the victim. But Mackenzie pointed out in his closing submissions that the accused confessed to a cellmate details of the crime known only to investigators. 

Rebecca Snukal, representing Lavorato, argued her client was "a woman trapped in the chaos of domestic violence" and said there was no evidence of an instruction to seriously harm the victim.