SANTA ROSA (BCN) -- A Santa Rosa man pleaded guilty Thursday morning to the stabbing  murder of his mother after the district attorney's office agreed to dismiss  an enhancement alleging intentional infliction of torture that subjected him  to the death penalty.

Christopher Lavis faces 26 years to life in prison when he is  sentenced in Sonoma County Superior Court on Nov. 30 for first-degree murder  and use of a knife, Deputy District Attorney Traci Carrillo said.

Lavis, 42, also waived his rights to all appeals as part of the  plea agreement, Carrillo said.

Carrillo argued at Lavis' preliminary hearing in June that some of  the 45 stab and slicing wounds found on the body of 63-year-old Connie  Elizabeth Lasalle were non-lethal and superficial, suggesting Lavis showed "a  controlled use of force" to torture his mother in her Santa Rosa condo on  Sept. 11, 2008.

Deputy Public Defender Amy Chapman argued against a holding order  on the torture allegation to spare her client the possibility of capital  punishment.

She cited Lavis' admission to police that he used kitchen shears  to inflict most of the wounds, then used a Roman gladius knife to inflict at  least one of the lethal wounds because she was still alive and he did not  want his mother to suffer.

Both the preliminary hearing judge, Lawrence Antolini, who held  Lavis to answer on the torture enhancement, and Judge Kenneth Gnoss, who  denied a defense motion Oct. 2 to dismiss the torture enhancement after  Antolini kept it in the complaint, struggled with the intentional infliction  of torture issue, Carrillo said.

She said she believes a jury would find Lavis intentionally  inflicted torture on his mother but an appeals court might also struggle with  that issue.

"We have to prove there was an intent to kill and an intent to  torture," Carrillo said. "His (Lavis') version is different. It could go  either way," Carrillo said.

Lavis admitted the killing to Santa Rosa police and he said he  used the kitchen shears to inflict most of the wounds before using the dagger  to inflict at least one lethal wound because he did not want his mother to  suffer, according to testimony at the preliminary hearing.

Lavis' mother wanted her son to move out of the apartment,  according to the testimony.

Lavis stayed in his mother's Stony Point Road condo for 10 days  after the murder, ordering takeout pizza three times, before he went to San  Francisco where he was arrested on Oct. 10 after being detained for skipping  out on a meal at a Jefferson Street restaurant.

Chapman was not immediately available for comment this afternoon  on the plea agreement.

Carrillo said the plea agreement "serves the interest of justice  and gives finality to the victim's close friends and next of kin,  particularly since there will be no appeals.

"It clearly was first-degree murder and he accepted  responsibility," Carrillo said.
     
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