Canadian Court Sentences Jasmine Richardson in Her Family's Murders

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The letters mentioned no remorse or any tinge of guilt by either party. Both Richardson and Steinke seem more concerned with their predicament than the crimes that led to their arrest. They also painted a different picture of Richardson than the one she portrayed of herself when she took the stand in her own defense on July 3.

Jasmine Richardson

During her testimony, Richardson told the court she had "hypothetical" conversations with Steinke about killing her family and possibly making the deaths look like a murder-suicide or an accident, but never intended on going through with any of the plans.

"In my group of friends, it was just the way we talked," Richardson testified. "It was just stupid talk. Every time I said that, I never meant it. I was angry. I didn't mean it. Everybody else knew I didn't mean it."

Jeremy Steinke

Richardson said Steinke made similar remarks but that she never took him seriously.

"I thought he was just being morbid," she said.

When asked about her relationship with Steinke, Richardson said the two began dating shortly after he gave her a Valentine's Day poem.

"I was flattered," she said. "I liked him. He was really sweet and attentive. He told me he loved me all the time."

Richardson said they would talk on the phone for hours every day and related that the first time they had sexual intercourse was a week before the murders took place.

"I loved him so much. I thought it would bring us closer together. I thought it would make him happy. I knew he wanted to have sex with me."

Confronted with the evidence of the jailhouse letters and the marriage proposal, Richardson said, "At that point, I was pretty much telling him what I thought he wanted to hear."

Richardson was then asked why she wrote that they were "legends" and had become "immortal."

"I was told the media were going crazy over this," she said. "That's our five minutes of fame. Immortality means people will remember you."

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