Second woman sentenced in body dumping

COEUR d’ALENE — A woman who said she was coerced into dumping the body of her friend into Lake Coeur d’Alene after the friend died of a drug overdose in Spokane Valley was sentenced to five years in prison.

Laura L. Akins, 28, is the second person to be sentenced for wrapping the body of 29-year-old Kimberly S. Vezina into a plastic tarp in October 2015, after the Spokane woman died of an overdose, tying the tarp and body to a bag of concrete and dumping it from a dock at Fuller’s Landing, across the lake from Harrison.

Co-defendant Lacy N. Drake pleaded guilty in May and was sentenced to 10 years in prison with five of those years fixed. Both Drake and Akins, who was sentenced Thursday, were allowed to participate in the prison rider program. That’s a 12-month rehabilitation program that will allow them the opportunity to be placed on probation.

First District Judge Richard Christensen consoled the victim’s family for the dismissive actions of the defendant after Vezina — her friend and roommate — died in the bathroom of a Spokane Valley residence on the 4400 block of Third Avenue, a known drug house.

“You have the court’s sympathy and you are correct,” Christensen said. “Your sister was more than destroyed evidence.”

Akins, the mother of a 2-year-old, told the court that fear for her family prompted her actions.

“My family and I were threatened that if I didn’t help move the body I would end up where she was,” Akins said. “I was on drugs and not thinking clearly and made a terrible mistake.”

According to reports from the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office, Drake and Akins were at the Spokane Valley drug house, which had been raided by authorities a month earlier, when Vezina showed up after being released from jail.

Police said drugs including brown heroin were being sold and used at the residence when Vezina, who was known as a “hustler,” was dropped off there by a known methamphetamine dealer.

Vezina reportedly overdosed in the bathroom that same night and her body was found in the morning. Because many of the residents had criminal records, the overdose was not reported to authorities.

Drake and Akins, who had less extensive criminal histories than other people at the house, were tapped to dispose of Vezina’s body.

“Ultimately it was decided that Laura and Lacy would dispose of the body after dark on Oct. 15,” according to a report by Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office personnel.

The women wrapped Vezina’s body with the blue tarp and part of a shower curtain from the bathroom where she died, and carried it to a stolen SUV before driving it to Fuller’s Bay, east of Worley. They secured the plastic with a red and white nylon rope and tied it to a bag of cement, dumping it off the dock at Fuller’s Landing.

The body was found three weeks later by fishermen who saw a hand poking from a tarp snagged on the breakwater at Fuller’s Landing.

Vezina died of “combined drug toxicity,” notably morphine and amphetamines, according to the Kootenai County Coroner’s report.

Christensen sentenced Akins to a total of five years in prison with four years fixed and an additional year to be used at the discretion of the Department of Correction.