DOVER, N.H. (AP) – A 48-year-old Massachusetts woman who helped a friend corroborate a self-defense plot at the murder scene of the friend’s live-in girlfriend has been sentenced to one year in jail.
The sentence for Joyce Zilinek came as a disappointment to friends and family of the victim, Lauralee Perkins, who was killed in 2006. They had hoped for a longer sentence.
Prosecutors say Zilinek, who was an ex-girlfriend of Heather Stone, drove to Dover from Massachusetts after Stone had shot Perkins to death at the home they shared following an argument.
Zilinek supposedly came up to pick up Stone’s son, who was at the apartment during the shooting, but prosecutors say she ended up helping stage a self-defense scene with Stone to help cover up the murder of Perkins.
Zilinek told the court she was overwhelmed by the gruesome scene she walked in on and panicked.
Stone pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in December and was sentenced to 30-years to life in prison.
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