28948: Hermantin(news)Man With Voodoo Shrine Gets Life in Prison (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Man With Voodoo Shrine Gets Life in Prison

By Associated Press

August 18, 2006, 12:53 AM EDT


NEW YORK -- A man who built a voodoo shrine using his ex-girlfriend's 
underwear, then killed her mother and a dog and slashed her cousin, was 
sentenced Thursday to 28 years to life in prison.

Pierre Carrenard was sentenced to consecutive terms of 25 years to life for 
killing the woman, two years for killing the dog and one year for assaulting 
the 16-year-old girl on Aug. 9, 2005, prosecutor Charles Hynes said.

The ex-girlfriend, Francois MacDaly, told police Carrenard, 36, harassed her 
after she broke up with him. On the day of the crimes, she said, Carrenard 
called her at work and threatened her mother, Esperance Labidou, a Haitian 
immigrant who worked at a bus company.

Carrenard testified in court that he believed Labidou had turned her daughter 
against him.

Prosecutors said Carrenard stabbed Labidou 25 times in her home before turning 
the knife on her Chihuahua, Foo Foo.

When the teenage cousin, who lived upstairs, entered the basement apartment, 
Carrenard slashed her face. He then fled to Florida.

Police found a shrine in his apartment made of MacDaly's underwear and one of 
his socks tied together with a vine.

Carrenard explained in court that the shrine "was a sort of spell to control 
her spirit."

Police also found a letter in his apartment.

"All I want to do is to love you and make a life with you, but your family 
keeps getting in the way," the letter said. "Let this be the last interference. 
You will no longer listen to your family. You will listen to me."

Carrenard was arrested last August in Miami, where he had been staying with 
friends. He was convicted this month.