Man pleads guilty to manslaughter in 2006 killing

By JOE PERRY
Item Senior Staff Writer
jperry@theitem.com

A 41-year-old Gable man was sentenced Wednesday morning to 18 years in prison after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter for the December 2006 shooting death of a 48-year-old Lynchburg man.

Laverne Ladson, formerly of 6210 Skinner Road, was arrested on Dec. 24, 2006, and charged with murder. The day before, Henry Kennedy, of 8125 Two Mile Road, was killed at the home of Ladson's girlfriend, Evelyn Kennedy, who also was Kennedy's estranged wife. Ladson has been incarcerated at Sumter-Lee Regional Detention Center since he was arrested and, by law, will get credit for time served.

Assistant Solicitor Jason Corbett spoke on behalf of Sumter County Sheriff's Office Investigator Dominic West and told Third Circuit Court Judge R. Ferrell Cothran Jr. that Ladson and Henry Kennedy had a verbal altercation the night of Dec. 23, 2006, at Evelyn Kennedy's home — near her estranged husband's home — that rose to a physical level. Ladson retrieved a .22-caliber Marlin rifle from the trunk of his car and fired a single shot at Henry Kennedy, hitting his heart and a lung, and causing him to bleed to death internally.

"Ain't too much I can say," Janie Kennedy, Henry Kennedy's mother, told Cothran. "Mr. Ladson — he was wrong for killing my son. Whatever time he gets is not going to bring my son back."