Laisha Landrum found guilty

Friday, January 13, 2006

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Landrum cried as the jury was leaving the courtroom.

A Hillsborough County jury found 18-year-old Laisha Landrum guilty of second-degree murder Friday.

Landrum is facing from 21 years to life in prison. She will be sentenced in February.

The jury took less than two hours to reach their verdict. Landrum sat dry-eyed and showed no emotional beyond briefly closing her eyes as the verdict was read.

But as the jury filed out of the courtroom, she began to cry.

"It's okay," she mouthed to her family.

Landrum and her boyfriend, Rocky Almestica, beat Almestica's former girlfriend, 16-year-old Emily Clemons, then tossed her in a trash bin and

Emily Clemons was 16 years old when she died.

left her to die at a north Tampa apartment complex in June 2004. Almestica was 16 and Landrum was 17 at the time.

Prosecutors said Landrum and Almestica lured Clemons to the apartment they shared, then viciously beat her with a pot and the claw of a hammer.

Almestica was convicted of second-degree murder in November 2004 and was sentenced to life in prison.

Click here to e-mail Chris Hawes, the TV reporter for this story.