Mother convicted of killing 8-year-old daughter appeals verdict and sentence

A woman sentenced to life in prison for killing her eight-year-old daughter to spite her ex-husband is appealing her sentence and the conviction.

Lisa Batstone was found guilty of the second-degree murder of her daughter Teagan, who was found dead in the back of Batstone's car on Dec. 10, 2014.

Her appeal comes three weeks after New Westminster Supreme Court Justice Catherine Murray handed down her sentence, saying the court needed to send a strong message to warring parents who use their children as weapons.

"The breach of trust could not be more abhorrent," Murray said during Batstone's sentencing on September 3.

Murray convicted Batstone in March. Second-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence, but parole eligibility can range from 10 to 25 years.

Murray sentenced Batstone to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 15 years. 

Crown had asked for a parole ineligibility of between 16 and 18 years. But the defence had argued that Batstone's mental issues warranted a period of 10 years. 

Murray found that the case met the bar for a harsher sentence: "egregious circumstances of higher order of moral culpability." 

Batstone's lawyers claimed she had been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder in jail and was suffering from anxiety at the time of the murder. But the judge said those factors didn't take away from her moral culpability in planning and committing the most extreme breach of trust imaginable for a parent.

Murray said Batstone planned to kill herself and kill Teagan as a way of making sure that Gabe Batstone couldn't have the child after she was dead.

The judge said Batstone, who was 41 at the time of the murder, never wavered. At her South Surrey home, she held a heavy plastic bag over the child's nose and mouth for four to five minutes to ensure her death.

Lisa Batstone then tried to kill herself using two smaller plastic bags, but couldn't go through with it. She left notes in her home that said, "You win Gabe," and, "You broke me."

Failing to kill herself, she ultimately placed her child's body in the trunk of her car and left home. She was carrying a large kitchen knife. Her car ran off the road in Surrey and she asked a stranger to call 911.

She was found in the trunk of her car, cradling Teagan's body.

The B.C. Prosecution Service confirmed that Batstone filed an appeal of both conviction and sentence. No dates have been set for the hearing of the appeal.