Tony Marks/Ville Platte Gazette
The son of a murder victim spoke out in response to a recent decision that was handed down by the Louisiana 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.
Glynn Lavergne’s mother Bernice was murdered in 1992 in her store in Chataignier. The suspect arrested for the crime was then 15-year-old Russell Ross Rubin.
Rubin was subsequently convicted in 1996 after his first conviction in 1994 was reversed by the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. Following both convictions, he was sentenced to serve life in prison at hard labor without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence.
The same appellate court followed a ruling of the U. S. Supreme Court that ruled that such a sentence imposed on a juvenile is unconstitutional because it is considered cruel and unusual punishment.
The case has been sent back to the district court on Rubin’s motion to correct the sentence.
The decision would make him eligible for parole after a hearing is held in district court in front of Judge Chuck West.
“It was a legal sentence at the time,” Lavergne said. “It became illegal in 2012 when the Supreme Court turned it around. They want to call it cruel and unusual punishment. You want to see some pictures of how mom was hacked up? Is that cruel and unusual punishment?”
Lavergne has some other questions regarding the court’s decision. “Where are my mother’s rights,” he asked. “Where can she go to appeal this decision to get out of the hole that he put her in? Where can she go?”
“Nowhere in there do they mention that (Rubin) robbed her,” continued Lavergne. “There’s not one word in all of those writs about how he chopped her up, cut her arm that it was just hanging, cut her across the face with a machete from ear to ear, and then shot her three times after she was dead.”
Lavergne acknowledged that he knew this day was coming. “Bruce Rozas and Billy Pucheu told me we’re all going to die and somebody is going to come and get (Rubin) out,” he said. “They’re true to their word.”
Without knowing what the outcome of this situation will be, Bernice Lavergne’s son Glynn says it has become all he can think about.
Glynn said, “Every morning when I wake up and every night when I go to bed this is on my mind,” he said. “I can go and talk to mom, but I’ll never get a response.”