Spokane woman sentenced to 8 years for role in People's Park murder
"You don't deserve pity," Andy's brother, Freddie Hernandez, said to Larren Parker. "You will always be a coward, just like your other two partners."
Parker was the third and last person to be sentenced for Andy Hernandez's killing. John Birgen, 28, and Randy Slone, 29, were both sentenced to over 30 years in prison for their roles in his death.
Slone told police at the time that all three were there as they tied Andy Hernandez's hands together and taped his mouth. They put him in the car, and Birgen drove to a dog park.
Slone told police Birgen used a large rock to hit Andy Hernandez in the head and grabbed the rope that was around Andy Hernandez's neck and pulled it, court documents say. Slone said Parker was in the car at the time of the murder.
Andy Hernandez, 51, died of blunt-force trauma and lack of oxygen, the Spokane County Medical Examiner's Office ruled. He had a broken neck, extensive injuries to his throat, including a broken bone, and severe blunt-force trauma to the back of his head. The motive for the killing, Slone said, was that Birgen alleged Hernandez raped someone, according to court records. Andy Hernandez's family has maintained this is false.
"You knew this was going to happen," Freddie Hernandez told Parker via Zoom. He said his brother "wasn't ready" to leave the world at the time of his death.
"I wish you all the worst," he added.
Parker's mother, Shannon Karlinsey, spoke in Friday's sentencing. She told the court that her daughter is a victim of trauma from a police raid and was diagnosed with PTSD at the age of 7. While in an out of juvenile detention, Karlinsey alleged her daughter was a victim of predatory adults. Parker cannot read or write, her defense attorney mentioned.
"She loves animals and rescues them," her mother said. "When she was arrested, she was at the maturity level of a 15-year-old. She has grown a great deal."
A statement from Parker was read to the court because she does not know how to write. Parker told the court and the family of Hernandez that she was sorry, and that she was "on a path of destruction" before her arrest. Since, she has been building her faith in a higher power.
"I have a plan for my release from prison," her statement said.
Spokane Superior Court Judge Julie McKay told Parker there was "a lot of damage done" that will never be fixed, and she hopes Parker understands that. She then sentenced her for second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit kidnapping.
"Actions have consequences," McKay said. "It doesn't matter what your excuses might be ... I hope you understand that ... And make sure this never happens again."
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UPI
an hour ago
- UPI
Sharon Horgan: A mother's love is central to 'Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox'
1 of 4 | Sharon Horgan's "The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox" premieres on Wednesday. Photo courtesy of Hulu NEW YORK, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- Catastrophe and Bad Sisters creator and actress Sharon Horgan says she wanted to star in Hulu's The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox because it is a nuanced family drama as opposed to a salacious true-crime saga. "It is looking at the story from a new perspective and sort of giving it a wider lens and not just focusing on the courtroom drama of it, but on Amanda's journey," Horgan, 55, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview "A lot of what led up to it and and happened after involved her family and impacted her family and, as someone who plays her mother, I realized how much of the the story was about their relationship and what you do for the people you love." The actual Knox was a producer on the fact-based miniseries, which premieres Wednesday. Horgan plays Edda Mellas, a German-born Seattle math teacher who is shocked to learn her daughter Amanda (Grace Van Patten) has been wrongfully imprisoned for the sexual assault and murder of her British flatmate while they were studying abroad in Italy in 2007. As a real-life parent herself, Horgan couldn't help but envision how hard she would fight to protect her own daughter if she ended up at the center of such a painful ordeal half a world away. "I'm a mama," she said. "I've got a 21-year-old girl and a 17-year-old girl, so, I, unfortunately, found it very easy to imagine either of my girls finding themselves in a terrifying situation [like this]." Knox's trial, conviction, retrial and eventual acquittal made news headlines around the world for more than a decade. "There was sort of a feeding of the public's obsession with it," Horgan said of the non-stop media coverage of the case, which led to countless documentaries and TV news-magazine specials. "It's an absolutely tragic, terrible story involving two young women, so I understand why it got under people's skin so much." Horgan was happy to spend time with the real Mellas and Knox when they visited the show's set. "When I was researching for the role, I was watching anything I could find of her online and there wasn't really that much. There were a few interviews and [some footage of Mellas] dealing with the media, dealing with the press and I was always struck by her composure ... and how calmly she dealt with the whole circus of it," Horgan said. "When I met her in real life, she's just a lovely, fun, young-for-her-age woman and I liked her very much and I think it's a testament to her strength of personality and her character that she's managed to pull together as normal a life as possible. I don't know if I'd have been able to manage that." The real Knox was involved in the project from the very first Zoom call Horgan took with the filmmakers. "It was Amanda and how she spoke about her mom, actually, how she spoke about what her mom went through while she was in prison, that made me want to do it, if I'm honest," Horgan said. "She's incredibly smart, a very emotionally intelligent, very warm, friendly mother," Horgan said of Knox, who now has two children of her own. "She's someone who had a real curiosity about the film and TV making process, as well. She's very open about being so new to that and I really enjoyed having them around. Edda came down for a couple of days, as well." Horgan said it was easy to bond with Van Patten (Tell Me Lies, Nine Perfect Strangers) and make that mother-daughter connection seem authentic. "I just felt incredibly motherly towards her. I was away from my girls at the time and I did not love that," Horgan laughed, noting that Van Patten's sister Anna played Amanda's sister Deanna, so she also looked out for her. "The two of them are adorable, sweet, kind girls and we hung out a bit. We did a bit of wall climbing together. We went for a few drinks," she added. "But, really, it was something that happened very quickly and, then, after that you're on set for so long. You have these long, long days, especially for the courtroom scenes. You really are sitting around for hours and days and, so, you do really just get to know each other." Horgan described the production as having a relaxed, collaborative atmosphere in which everyone involved understood the responsibility they had to get this story right after years of misinformation, misunderstandings and bias obscured the truth. "There's nothing about the team that made you feel anything other than protected," she said about the cast and crew. "You were in good company and everyone was there to take care of the story and tell it to the best of their ability. That was a good feeling. You felt like everyone was very aware of the story that they were telling and being careful with that." Amanda Knox returns to the U.S. Amanda Knox, left, follows her attorney Michael Nifong as they attend a news conference held at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport near Seattle, Washington on October 4, 2011. After spending four years in an Italian prison Knox arrived in the United States after departing Rome's Leonardo da Vinci airport. Knox's life turned around dramatically Monday when an Italian appeals court threw out her conviction in the sexual assault and fatal stabbing of her British roommate. UPI/Jim Bryant | License Photo
USA Today
3 hours ago
- USA Today
Grace Van Patten sits ‘in awe' of Amanda Knox's ability to hold onto hope
Grace Van Patten doesn't remember exactly how the trials of Amanda Knox unfolded in real time. The star of Hulu's eight-part limited series 'The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox' was only 10 when the body of British student Meredith Kercher was discovered in an Italian apartment on Nov. 1, 2007. Authorities quickly arrested Knox, then 20, who was Kercher's roommate and also studying abroad, and her boyfriend of about a week, Raffaele Sollecito. Knox and Sollecito were convicted, then acquitted, found guilty once more and finally cleared in 2015. 'I knew that name,' Van Patten, 28, says. 'I didn't know the details because I was younger, but as soon as I did, I could not believe it. It was such a shocking, tragic story.' The 'Tell Me Lies' star felt 'shocked by the sequence of events that happened … the flaws in the system and the lack of evidence and how this even came to be, the frustration of all of these things happening that should not have happened.' 'The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox' (first two episodes now streaming, then weekly on Wednesdays), revisits the details of Kercher's death and the investigation that largely ignored them. Knox spent nearly four years in an Italian prison before being acquitted in 2011. Even after she was exonerated in 2015, Knox still faced public scrutiny, despite the conviction of a man named Rudy Guede. (Guede was released in 2021 after serving 13 years.) For her portrayal, Van Patten relied heavily on Knox, an executive producer of the series. In their first meeting over Zoom shortly after Van Patten was cast, the actress expelled a 'word-vomit of endless questions,' she says, while 'gauging how much (Knox) would share with me. And she was so open. So it really gave me comfort knowing that she was wanting to share all this with me.' To prepare for the most authentic portrayal possible in the dramatic retelling, Van Patten asked Knox 'how she felt in the moment, moment to moment,' Van Patten says, so she could 'show her emotions as much as possible, as opposed to trying to do some impression of her.' Van Patten remains astonished by Knox's ability to remain optimistic. 'A big surprise to me, and something I'm still in awe of, is how she maintained positivity and hopefulness throughout it all,' says Van Patten. 'I could never imagine being in that situation." Van Patten applauded Knox for setting her sights on learning Italian in prison. 'The way she took control was so inspiring," Van Patten says. "She could have easily given up and she never gave up and she still hasn't.' 'I am someone who sees the silver lining in things,' Knox, 38, says, 'and that quality was both used against me and was the source of my strength. It was the reason why I was able to survive this experience and come out on the other side, to accomplish the things that I've accomplished and that you see in this show. 'There's so many themes that this show deals with and one is perception and my ability to perceive my plight at the various moments that I am,' Knox continues. The onscreen version of Knox is 'very naïve for a long time in this series. Even after I'm in prison, there's still this, like, 'Oh, the adults in the room will figure it out.' There's this huge psychological shift that happens after the guilty verdict, where her whole approach to life is challenged and she has to rediscover that hopefulness and that sense of purposefulness, even in a very dark place. I guess I'm grateful that I'm built that way.'
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Amanda Knox knows she's the story. It took motherhood to want to tell it on her own terms.
"For better or for worse, I'm carrying her legacy alongside mine," Knox says of her former roommate Meredith Kercher. Most people reconnect with former classmates at milestone reunions. Maybe they meet for an occasional coffee when they're back in their hometown. When I saw Amanda Knox for the first time since our high school graduation, our reconnection was a little different. There we were, talking face-to-face over Zoom about Hulu's new scripted series The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox, inspired by 16 pivotal years of her life. Knox was keeping a low profile when our 10-year reunion came around in Seattle in 2015, afraid to be in public spaces. She had just learned that Italy's high court would finally bring some closure to a case that began in 2007, when she was arrested on a charge of murder in the death of 21-year-old Meredith Kercher, her roommate while studying abroad in Perugia. 'The first letters that I ever got in prison were from people from [our high school],' she tells me, her voice softening as we begin our conversation. 'I'm going to get emotional right now, because everyone else in my life — my parents, my college friends — they were all just like, 'Oh, Amanda's going to get out any day now.' But I think [our school] had this sort of established sense of how to respond to a crisis, and we're going to do it collectively. Like, we know this girl. To receive those messages when I was in the middle of this insane story that was blowing up around me? That was a huge relief.' To call her story insane is an understatement. Knox was convicted of murder and spent four years in prison before she was acquitted in 2011. The case took several twists: In 2014, an appeals court reversed that acquittal and reconvicted her. That second guilty verdict, for Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, was thrown out in 2015 by Italy's highest court, ending the legal saga. Rudy Guede, whose DNA was found at the crime scene, remains the only person convicted of Kercher's murder. Through it all, Knox says, her story was often misrepresented, both in the media and by the public. The Hulu series, which premieres on Aug. 20, is her attempt to tell it herself onscreen. The Lewinsky effect The series itself came together at a pivotal moment in Knox's life. She had just given birth to daughter Eureka in 2021 and was struggling with how to reconcile the trauma she had endured with her new role as a mother. 'I was sitting with this feeling of needing to be OK,' Knox says, explaining she had to confront her past to avoid 'consciously or unconsciously passing on this dark cloud that had been hovering over me onto my children.' (She also shares son Echo with husband Christopher Robinson.) She began corresponding with Giuliano Mignini, the lead prosecutor who worked for years to get both her and Sollecito locked up. The two have since formed an unlikely friendship, and Knox says she's forgiven him. This is a big plot point in The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox, a show that wouldn't have happened if it weren't for a different, unexpected friendship Knox formed with Monica Lewinsky. Knox first met Lewinsky in 2017, when she was feeling 'very small and diminished' and that people still didn't believe in her innocence. The two bonded immediately. 'Monica had been reduced to a punch line, just like I had,' Knox says. 'Seeing how she emerged, speaking out, writing, advocating — it made me realize there was a path forward for my own story.' Lewinsky reached out to Knox shortly after Eureka was born. '[Monica] said, 'I think it's time to tell your story. I know you want to on your own terms and in your own way. We can do it together.'' Knox wrote her first memoir, Waiting to Be Heard, in 2013, and her second book, Free: My Search for Meaning, came out in March. But a scripted series is a different challenge, offering a chance to show the emotional nuances and psychological complexity that words alone can't always capture. With Lewinsky's guidance, Knox finally felt ready. 'She wasn't just like, 'Here's a horrible thing that happened to a girl and here's a courtroom drama.' It's a more personal story of who you were before a traumatic event enters your life, and who you are after. How do you make sense of it? What do you do to reclaim a sense of ownership over your own life? That's what the [show] is about,' Knox, who produced the series alongside Lewinsky, says. 'That's why we frame it the way we do in the show: I'm going back to Italy to confront my prosecutor.' Aside from Lewinsky, Knox credits creator and showrunner K.J. Steinberg for guiding the series with sensitivity and ensuring the story was told with both accuracy and heart. '[Steinberg] completely understood the stakes. Her vision meshed with my own, and we were able to create this story together that was not just a rehashing of a terrible thing,' Knox says. 'It was something that honored all the people involved ... I feel really lucky to be on this journey with so many incredibly talented people who want to get it right.' Facing the shadow After Kercher was found dead, police interrogated Knox for a total of 53 hours over five days. Part of the prosecution's evidence against her was a signed confession, which she says was the result of coercive tactics. For Knox, one of the most emotionally charged sequences in the series centers on the interrogation. It was a scene she was 'really concerned' about. 'A lot of people have mistaken notions about what an interrogation is really like,' she says. 'You think of CSI, but really, these things happen behind closed doors. Those of us who enter into them are unprepared because we don't know how it really works.' The scene depicting the questioning is condensed but powerful. 'I had to show a version that still trails the psychological journey both I and my interrogators were on. They're convincing themselves of a story while trying to convince me to submit to it. That was crucial. As someone now who's an advocate for criminal justice reform, I want people to viscerally understand that experience,' Knox says. The weight of that scene hit her hard, even during production. 'I watched when we filmed it. It was over and over, 10 hours a day for two days, from all different angles. By the time we were done, I just wept — not just because I was triggered, but because I was relieved that we had gotten it right,' she says. As an executive producer, Knox had significant creative input, including a say in casting and cowriting the series finale. 'Isn't Grace Van Patten stunning? She was so good,' Knox says of the actress who plays her. 'She could bring in the whimsy, the gravitas and the heart.' While it was crucial for Knox that Van Patten nail the facets of her personality, equally important was capturing the depth and vulnerability of Knox as a mother. It's a role that has shaped how she has approached every decision in the past four years. When Knox gave birth to Eureka, the first words she said to her daughter were: 'I'm sorry. I'm sorry I'm your mom.' Knox is used to living with a shadow, and she knows that shadow will follow her kids as well. Millions of people still assume she's guilty of a crime she was acquitted of, and one day, her kids will read all about it online. Knox says the decision to tell her story now in this way is about 'wanting to make sure these things don't happen again so that someone else's daughter out there [doesn't] get treated the way that I got treated,' adding, 'and the way Monica got treated.' 'Monica and I both are really concerned about trying to do right so that when the next person comes along, they have a less hard time,' she says. Legacies intertwined The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox isn't just about her own story. 'It's about honoring everyone whose life was upended,' Knox says. 'Two girls studied abroad in Perugia, Italy, and only one of them got to go home. Only one of them survived.' Knox then becomes emotional. "Meredith and I ... the way that I look back on it to this day, is that I didn't know her for that long. But for better or for worse, I'm carrying her legacy alongside mine,' she says. Kercher's parents have both died, and Knox never reconciled with them. She hopes to connect with Kercher's siblings but doesn't know if that will happen. Kercher's sister has been vocal in expressing her disappointment that it's Kercher's story that has been lost in all of this for nearly two decades. 'I really felt like it was so important to do [Meredith] justice in the show in a way that it hadn't been done in the past,' Knox says. 'There are people to this day who don't even remember her name, much less the name of the person who actually murdered her.' Guede's 30-year sentence was reduced on appeal to 16 years, and he was released from prison in 2021. Headlines still only focused on one person. 'Amanda Knox's roommate's killer freed,' read one. 'That is a sign that this story has not been told right,' Knox says. 'And it was one that I am trying to correct.' Solve the daily Crossword
