Date: Tuesday, November 28, 1995  
Source: Associated Press.   
Section: NEWS  
Parts: 14  
Dateline: SALEM, Ore.    
Copyright Chicago Tribune

INNOCENT COUPLE FREE FROM PRISON
`HAPPY FACE KILLER' CONVICTED OF MURDER   

   A man and a woman who served four years for a 1990 strangling were
released from prison Monday, three weeks after the "Happy Face Killer" was
convicted of the crime.

   "There's no longer any doubt that these two individuals are innocent. The
evidence is compelling," Circuit Judge Paul Lipscomb said.

   Laverne Pavlinac, 62, and her former boyfriend, John Sosnovske, 42, went
free two months after Keith Hunter Jesperson confessed to the strangling of
Taunja Bennett. He was convicted of the murder on Nov. 2.

   Jesperson was nicknamed the Happy Face Killer for the smiley faces he drew
on letters claiming responsibility for eight murders.

                          ....................

   Pavlinac had told police she helped her boyfriend kill Bennett and dispose
of her body. But at her trial, Pavlinac recanted, saying 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.
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