A woman who bludgeoned her 14-year-old daughter to death with a hammer and shovel sat impassively in court Friday as her stepchildren and ex-husband called her evil and said she deserved to die instead of going to prison.
Lynn Giovanni, 47, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for aggravated manslaughter and must serve 25½ years before becoming eligible for parole for killing her daughter, Nicole, as the teen slept in February 2005. Lynn Giovanni pleaded guilty in October as part of a plea deal.
Giovanni showed no emotion during the hour-long proceeding, although her cheeks grew red when her ex-husband and several other relatives said she deserved the death penalty.
“Lynn, may you and your soul rot and burn in hell for eternity,” her ex-husband, John Giovanni, said in court. “You are the devil.”
Lynn Giovanni’s public defender, Peter Liguori, said his client suffers from bipolar disorder and other mental illnesses, though that does not excuse what she did.
“No words could possibly express the depth of her sorrow,” Liguori said.
But Nicole’s half-brother, Jonathan, ridiculed those claims and said his stepmother deserved to die.
“I have never once seen the face of someone who is remorseful or sorry,” he told the judge. “She did what she wanted to do to hurt all of us.”