LAKE COUNTY, Fla. — Almost a decade after anyone else saw or spoke to Michael Shaver, a six-person jury convicted his wife, Laurie, of shooting him in the back of the head and burying his body in the back yard to end a case that gained national attention.
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A visibly nervous Laurie Shaver exhaled heavily as she walked into the court room to face her fate, and immediately became emotional as the clerk read out the guilty of second degree murder charge.
Other members of her family could also be seen getting emotional, including her teenage daughter who had taken the stand to back up the narrative Laurie had built to defend herself.
Read: Jury finds Laurie Shaver guilty of 2nd degree murder in husband’s death
Outside the court room, Michael’s family hugged and cried.
“Elation. Elation,” sister Stacie Turner said with her relatives gathered around her. “We were very happy. This was a long time coming.”
Prosecutors thanked the various law enforcement agencies who contributed to building a case that was made difficult by the fact Michael’s body had decomposed underground for three years. The case relied entirely on circumstantial evidence.
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“I don’t think there was a detective with the sheriff’s office back in 2018 to 2020 that didn’t touch this case,” prosecutor Nick Camuccio said. “And all of the CSI people on this case, truly top-notch effort on all of them.”
Shaver’s attorney, Jeffrey Wiggs, had expressed hope of securing a not guilty conviction throughout the week. He said he would be filing an appeal and believed he had the grounds to overturn Shaver’s conviction based on uneven rulings in the courtroom.
He also spoke of Laurie Shaver’s decision to testify after her teenage daughter took the stand. During the daughter’s cross examination, several jurors could be seen avoiding looking at her as she stumbled to account for her statements that the shooting happened in May 2016, six months after Michael was alleged to have vanished.
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Wiggs said he did not rehearse any testimony with the girl, but Shaver was afraid she sounded too confident and practiced.
“I let her give her narrative, but I think Ms. Shaver felt she looked practiced or rehearsed and I think that inspired her in part to testify,” Wiggs said. “She leaned on me about that, and I just finally turned to her and said, ‘If that’s what you feel, you need to do go ahead and do it.’”
With her conviction, Shaver faces a minimum of 25 years in prison and a maximum life sentence.
Her sentencing date has been scheduled for November 25.
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