Woman Gets Life for Burning Dancer

avatar for Dudester
Dudester
LOS ANGELES - A San Fernando Valley woman was sentenced to life in prison Thursday for dousing a bikini dancer with gasoline and setting her on fire at a club called "Babes & Beer."

Rianne Theriault-Odom, 28, was sentenced in Van Nuys Superior Court for
the Feb. 5, 2009 attack on Roberta Busby. The Simi Valley woman received
burns over 40 percent of her body and has had more than two dozen skin
grafts.

The badly-scarred victim tearfully asked the judge to issue the maximum
sentence for an act of "drunken rage."

"Now you're going to feel the same heartache that I felt when I couldn't
hug, kiss or play with my kids or even talk to my kids," the 28-year-old
mother of two told her attacker, reading from a letter in court.

"I guess I'll never know what was going through your mind that night, but one day you'll have to answer to God, and that's more justice than any prison can do to you," Busby said.

No delay to sentence Odom, who has four children, requested a psychiatrist and said she was mentally unprepared for the sentence. Superior Court Judge turned down a request to postpone the sentencing.
Prosecutors say the two women had been feuding when Theriault-Odom doused Busby with gasoline from a soda bottle and set her ablaze at the Tarzana club. Busby ran inside, and employees and patrons used curtains to douse the flames. Theriault-Odom, who'd been refused a job as a dancer at the club, claimed someone else set the woman on fire.

Last month, a jury convicted her of torture and aggravated mayhem but
acquitted her of attempted murder.

5 comments

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avatar for winorhino
winorhino
15 years ago
That's so fucked up.
avatar for samsung1
samsung1
15 years ago
I think I remember tuscl started a fund for the victim's family, no?
avatar for casualguy
casualguy
15 years ago
Where did she get the gasoline from? This is a terrible tragedy I hope other clubs can help prevent.
avatar for sanitago
sanitago
15 years ago
WTF, she couldn't get a job in the club, so she attacks and nearly kills someone who did? what the hell did she think, if she got rid of one of her 'competitors', the club would overlook her doing so on their property?
seriously f**ked up b**ch!
avatar for samsung1
samsung1
15 years ago
I am waiting for a political debate to start on whether or not it would have been better to do the death penalty instead of life in prison. lol
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