Released from prison four years after confessing to a murder she didn't commit, Laverne Pavlinac sat down to dinner with her family and laughed at the simple pleasures she was rediscovering.
"Just being away from there, it's kind of dreamlike," Pavlinac said Monday night, just hours after being released. "Maybe tomorrow I'll wake up and realize that it really happened. It's been a long time."Pavlinac, 62, and her former boyfriend, John Sosnovske, 42, were freed two months after Keith Hunter Jesperson confessed to the strangling of Taunja Bennett.
Jesperson was convicted of the murder on Nov. 2. He was nicknamed the Happy Face Killer for the smiley faces he drew on letters claiming responsibility for eight killings.
Pavlinac had confessed to helping kill Bennett in 1990, then recanted, testifying that she had lied in an attempt to escape her abusive relationship with Sosnovske.
She was convicted anyway and sentenced to life in prison after jurors heard her taped confession. Sosnovske pleaded no contest to murder to avoid the death penalty and also got life.
Jesperson, who claimed responsibility after his arrest earlier this year, said he cried with joy upon learning they were free.
"I lost total composure. I was just very overjoyed," Jesperson told KOIN-TV in an interview from Clark County Jail. "God bless them. They finally got out. They needed to get out."
Prosecutors joined the effort to free Pavlinac and Sosnovske after Jesperson led authorities to the victim's purse.
Despite Jesperson's confession, a judge didn't release Pavlinac and Sosnovske. Last month, days before Jesperson's conviction, the judge said he needed more evidence and that Jesperson's involvement didn't necessarily absolve Pavlinac and Sosnovske.
On Monday, the judge finally set aside the convictions of Sosnovske and Pavlinac, saying Sosnovske's civil rights had been violated because of Pavlinac's lies.