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Toni Lawrence is one of the four girls who participated in the brutal torture and murder of 12-year old Shanda Sharer on January 11th, 1992, alongside Melinda Loveless, Laurie Tackett, and Hope Rippey. She participated the least out of the four, not inflicting any physical harm on Shanda at all and only being the driver for most of the night.
Biography
Toni was born in Madison in February 1976. At age 9, she was molested by a family member and at age 14, was raped by a teenage boy. The police became involved and ordered the boy to stay away from Toni. Like the other girls, Toni was attracted to women (Both Melinda and Laurie were lesbians, and Hope and Toni were bisexual.)
Prior to the night of the murder, Toni had never met Melinda, nor had she ever met Shanda, and had only met Laurie once. She and Hope had been close friends since childhood. The day before the murder, Toni had visited the Witch's Castle with Laurie and Hope, and the following day, was one of the girls who talked to Shanda to lure her into the car (and in between their two trips to Shanda's house, she and Hope hooked up and had sex with some boys they had met at the punk rock show they attended in Louisville.)
All throughout the night, Toni mostly served as the driver, trading off with Laurie. She refused to harm Shanda and some reports indicate that she may have comforted Shanda during the night's events, but at the same time allowed the horrific torture and eventual murder of Shanda to take place. She also helped get directions to their various locations.
At 2:30 a.m., Toni and Hope stayed behind as the other two girls went "country cruising", driving to the nearby town of Canaan, hoping that Shanda would die slowly. Both Toni and Hope believed that they had gone too far at that point, but neither of them - Hope in particular - believed it was possible to turn back.
It was Toni who went to the authorities and confessed what the four had done two days after the crime had taken place. All four girls were tried as adults, and in exchange for her cooperation, Toni was allowed to plead guilty to one count of criminal confinement and was sentenced to a maximum of twenty years. She would be released on parole on December 14th, 2000, after serving nearly nine years. She remained on parole until December 2002.
Toni (now known as Toni Parker) still lives in the Indianapolis and now has two children of her own. She has kept mostly a low profile since her release from prison. She has since gone on record to say that she wished she had done more to put a stop to that night's events. but was too afraid of going against Melinda to do so.