A former Los Angeles police detective for years hid the reality about how she killed her ex’s new spouse. Now, she might go free.

A former Los Angeles police detective was convicted of murdering her ex-boyfriend’s spouse in 2012, greater than 20 years after Sherri Rasmussen was killed in her Southern California rental.

But last month parole officials concluded that Stephanie Lazarus, the previous detective who was sentenced to 27 years to life in jail, is eligible for parole. And Rasmussen’s family members are outraged that the lady who hid the reality concerning the homicide and continued to work as a legislation enforcement officer for greater than 20 years might go free.

Lazarus, now 63 and incarcerated southeast of Los Angeles, pleaded not responsible throughout her trial and had not publicly admitted to her function within the 1986 killing till a parole suitability listening to on Nov. 16, in accordance with two family members who attended the listening to.

Connie Rasmussen, Sherri Rasmussen’s older sister, mentioned in her household’s first interview concerning the determination that whereas Lazarus acknowledged killing Sherri through the listening to, she didn’t apologize to family members and appeared to downplay the seriousness of the crime, saying that she hadn’t meant to kill Sherri when she went to the Van Nuys rental on Feb. 24, 1986.

Lazarus was convicted of first-degree homicide, Connie mentioned, however she appeared to explain her crime as manslaughter.

Sherri, a nursing director at a Los Angeles-area hospital, was shot 3 times within the chest with a .38 pistol and struck within the head with a ceramic vase, authorities have mentioned. Her left arm had additionally been bitten.

“I used to be shocked,” Connie, 69, mentioned of the parole panel’s determination. “Sherri was that individual that was giving again to the group, and he or she didn’t should be killed. And he or she deserves justice.”

Releasing Lazarus now, she mentioned, “shouldn’t be justice for my sister. It’s one other slap within the face.”

“She had 23 years to lie and to cover the proof and to go on together with her life when she might have turned herself in,” mentioned Connie’s daughter, Jessica Pannell, 35, who additionally attended the parole listening to.

When a parole commissioner requested Lazarus why she had not turned herself in, particularly as a result of she had taken an oath as a legislation enforcement officer, the previous detective responded that she had been afraid of getting caught, Pannell mentioned.

The choice from the parole panel is not final. It’s topic to evaluation by the total board inside 120 days, and the governor has 30 days to weigh in on finalized choices.

A lawyer for Lazarus didn’t reply to a request for remark.

A spokesperson for the company that oversees the Board of Parole Hearings, the California Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation, mentioned that the Nov. 16 listening to was Lazarus’ first time earlier than the parole board.

She was arrested in 2009 and granted greater than 4 years of pre-sentencing credit score for time served whereas awaiting trial, in accordance with the spokesperson, Mary Xjimenez.

If Lazarus’ parole is finalized, she wouldn’t be launched earlier than subsequent July, her minimal eligible parole date, Xjimenez mentioned.

A spokesperson for California Gov. Gavin Newsom mentioned his workplace had not but obtained the case.

“If it does, it will likely be reviewed rigorously,” the spokesperson mentioned.

Pannell recalled that at the start of the November listening to, the presiding commissioner mentioned Lazarus was invoking a 2018 California law that aimed to reform how offenders who have been youthful than 26 when their crimes have been dedicated are dealt with within the prison justice system.

The statute cites state and federal excessive courtroom choices which have reviewed proof exhibiting that elements of the mind concerned in habits management will not be totally mature till an individual’s mid- to late-20s. In keeping with the California legislation, with few exceptions, individuals who meet the factors “are required to have a significant alternative for parole throughout their pure life.”

Lazarus was a junior police officer and nearly 26 when she killed Sherri.

To Connie, the legislation makes little sense in Lazarus’ case: Lazarus had graduated from the police academy and been discovered match and competent sufficient to hold a gun.

“But she’s nonetheless eligible to make use of this standards for early launch?” Connie mentioned.

The Division of Corrections didn’t reply to requests for remark.

Sherri had married Lazarus’ ex-boyfriend solely months earlier than she was killed.

Prosecutors argued that Lazarus was fueled by jealousy when she killed Sherri, who her sister recalled as loving and type, pushed and really brilliant: She had skipped two grades and began attending Loma Linda College on the age of 16.

LAPD investigators initially mentioned Sherri was killed in a housebreaking gone unsuitable, however her household lengthy suspected Lazarus might have been behind the homicide and pushed detectives to analyze her.

In 2009, investigators with the division’s murder unit who reopened the case in contrast a DNA pattern taken from a chew mark on Sherri’s left shoulder with a pattern secretly captured from Lazarus’ soda straw.

The samples matched, and Lazarus was arrested and charged with homicide.

Lazarus denied the allegations, telling investigators she couldn’t imagine they have been accusing her, and through a virtually monthlong trial her lawyer argued that the DNA proof had been corrupted.

A jury convicted Lazarus on March 8, 2012, after three days of deliberations.

This text was initially revealed on NBCNews.com