Laurie Shaver, 41, became visibly distraught and turned to face away from jurors as they declared her guilty of second-degree murder in court on Friday.
A jury convicted Laurie Shaver of second-degree murder in Florida on Friday.
Jurors took just four hours to return with their verdict, finding Laurie, 41, guilty of second-degree murder and not guilty of accessory after the fact for the 2015 death of her husband, Michael Shaver.
A visibly distraught Laurie could not bring herself to look at the jury and struggled to maintain her composure as the verdict was read in court on Friday.
That conviction came just one day after Laurie's teenage daughter testified that she shot her father after allegedly witnessing him abuse her mother.
In her testimony, the daughter said that she had a poor relationship with her father, alleging that he frequently abused her mother. On the night she shot him, the daughter alleged that he was kicking her mother as she lay on the ground in their bedroom so the then-7-year-old went and retrieved a gun to shoot her father she said on the witness stand.
The daughter previously admitted to shooting her dad in her deposition and had told at least one other person outside the family, but the judge refused to allow that individual to speak about that conversation under oath after prosecutors filed a motion to block that portion of his testimony during the trial.
After she claimed she shot her father, the daughter testified that the married man with whom her mother was having an affair then shot Michael again and disposed of the body.
That man testified however that he did not shoot Michael and that he had never met the man, disputing the daughter's claims that he had any involvement in the murder. He was also never charged with any crime in connection to Michael's murder.
Prosecutors argued that Laurie shot her husband and then buried his body in the backyard after a tumultuous relationship that began when the two first met as teenagers in upstate New York.
The prosecution also accused Laurie's daughter of changing her statements on multiple occasions and pointed out that the autopsy determined Michael had been shot in the head once, and that the medical examiner found no evidence to suggest a second bullet had entered his body.
Laurie's lawyer said immediately after the verdict that his client would be filing an appeal in the case.
"We understand the profound impact this case has had on Michael Shaver’s family and friends. We hope this verdict brings some measure of closure for them. Crimes like this leave a deep and lasting impact on our society,” said fifth-judicial-circuit state attorney Bill Gladson.
The judge remanded Laurie to the Lake County Jail where she will now await her sentencing in the case, which has been scheduled for Nov. 25.
She and her family declined to comment in the wake of the verdict.
Michael Shaver Murder
Michael Shaver disappeared on Nov. 15, 2015, according to a probable cause affidavit.
The affidavit says that the monorail technician at Disney World messaged his employer three days later and suddenly quit his job. At the same time, his wife, Laurie, told friends and family that Michael had abandoned her and their children to start a new life with a new woman.
Two years later, a friend of Michael alerted police to the situation, according to the affidavit, saying that no one had seen or heard from Michael since the day he went missing. That same friend also said that he believed Laurie might be impersonating her husband on Facebook and had built a giant concrete fire pit in the backyard shortly after Michael went missing.
On Feb.16, 2018, deputies with the Lake County Sheriff's Office say they arrived at the home of Michael and Laurie Shaver to perform a welfare check. Laurie welcomed the men in and cooperated with the search efforts according to the affidavit, until they inquired about taking a look around that recently constructed firepit with a cadaver dog.
Laurie instructed the deputies to leave her home, says the affidavit, and they stopped their search. Those deputies then returned on March 9 and found the body of Michael buried three feet below the fire pit.
The affidavit says he died as the result of a single bullet to the back of the head, fired from a .38 caliber gun.
The couple owned multiple firearms, according to the affidavit, and Laurie kept a pink .38 caliber handgun on her nightstand.
Laurie never once called her husband after Nov.15, according to the affidavit, and never sought child support payments. She also never filed for divorce and began selling off Michael's guns and tools.
The affidavit also notes that Laurie married again less than a year after her husband's death, and had once allegedly told her new husband of Michael: "It's not that he's missing, it's that he's no longer walking this Earth."
She also told her new husband about a body buried on the property, suggesting to him that something bad happened, according to the affidavit.
Laurie did keep up the illusion of Michael being alive by sending sporadic messages on social media and allegedly telling stories about encounters between the two to her friends, according to the affidavit.
Laurie Shaver Arrest
On Sept. 17, 2020, deputies arrested Laurie Shaver and charged her with second-degree murder, domestic violence and accessory after the fact.
She entered a plea of not guilty to all three charges, posted $50,000 bail and returned home to her two children with Michael, according to court records.
Laurie's attorney informed the judge early last year of "having received testimony from a minor child, who confessed to having committed the respective murder in this matter," according to a motion filed by the defense.
That minor child met with her own court-appointed attorney last year and "represented her desire to testify in this case," the defense said in a previous motion.
That motion said that the minor child had been "apprised of the rights she would be waving, and the possibility [sic] penalties she would be facing," according to the motion.
The defense sought to have the child evaluated by a professional to argue against any claims of witness tampering or fabrication during the trial, but both the initial motion and a motion for reconsideration were rejected by the court.
Prosecutors meanwhile continue to focus on Laurie as the person responsible for the death of her one-time high school sweetheart Michael.
Laurie allegedly had a tempestuous relationship with her husband, according to the affidavit, and court records show that in September 2014, a fight between the couple resulted in Michael being charged with battery. Those records also show that Michael agreed to a plea deal that allowed him to enter a 12-month pre-trial intervention program, which he completed in just six months.
Both Michael and Laurie provided conflicting stories about the incident, with each accusing the other of brandishing a gun that they had to wrestle away during the skirmish.
Michael went to live in an airplane hangar at work after this incident and even began dating a co-worker, according to the affidavit. That relationship soured after Laurie began reporting the couple's actions to the human resources department at Disney World, according to the affidavit.
In May 2015, Michael and the co-worker split and he returned home to Laurie and their two children, according to the affidavit. Six months later, he was shot dead.
