Lawyer allegedly killed by wife who hid her identity and criminal past

By Stefanie Frith

Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Friends and family say lawyer Larry McNabney really knew only one thing for sure about his fifth wife, Elisa, when they married: She shared his passion for quarter horses.

Six years later, Larry McNabney is dead, poisoned by his wife and her 21-year-old friend with a horse tranquilizer, according to authorities.

His widow was arrested poolside in Florida this week, her long brown hair cut short and dyed black, her formerly size 10 body slimmed down to a 3.

McNabney never knew her real name. The woman he knew as Elisa Barasch is really Laren Renee Sims, a thrice-married 36-year-old with a 113-page criminal record who is wanted in Washington state and Florida for credit card fraud, grand theft and parole violations, authorities said.

McNabney, 53, was last seen alive being pushed in a wheelchair by Sims at a Los Angeles horse show Sept. 10. A day later, authorities said, Sims started clearing out his office and sold his $110,000 horse trailer and truck. She shut down his law practice in January and disappeared with about $500,000 of his assets.

She was arrested Monday on charges she killed her husband with the help of Sarah Dutra, a college student who worked along with Sims in McNabney’s Sacramento law office.

Tipped off to her whereabouts by friends of Sims’ 17-year-old daughter, Florida authorities found Sims at a condominium. She disguised her voice and had recently consulted a plastic surgeon, authorities said. When they approached, she told them, “I’m the one you’re looking for.”

Sims was probably “tired of running,” said Baxter Dunn, the sheriff in San Joaquin County, Calif.

Once in custody, she wrote a three-page confession, saying she and Dutra gave McNabney horse tranquilizers at a Los Angeles hotel, then drove to Yosemite National Park, where Dutra started digging a hole. But McNabney was still alive.

They took him back home to Woodbridge, in California’s Central Valley.

“He wanted to sleep,” Sims said in her statement. “His face was droopy.”

McNabney was dead by morning, Sims told investigators. She said she and Dutra wrapped him in plastic held together by duct tape and stuck his body in the garage refrigerator. Months later, Sims said, she buried her husband in a vineyard. She told relatives and friends that he was in rehab, in Costa Rica or living with a cult, police said.

Sims “was keeping appearances up like she was still running the firm,” said Nelida Stone, a spokeswoman for the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Department. “All this time, she was still taking everybody’s money.”

Dutra confessed Tuesday, according to authorities, and was booked on murder and conspiracy charges. She has not entered a plea.

When Sims met McNabney in 1995, she called herself Elisa Barasch, the last name of a former cellmate in Florida, where she served seven months for violating her parole for grand theft and fraud.

Tavia Williams, one of McNabney’s three grown children, said her father “was attracted to her because of her age and the fact that she lays on the charm.”

Sims began working as an office manager in McNabney’s Las Vegas practice, and they married in 1996.

A year later, McNabney was reprimanded by the Nevada bar because Sims had allegedly embezzled about $74,000 from his clients. Sims was banned from working for McNabney in Nevada, so the couple moved to Sacramento and started a new practice.

McNabney’s body was found Feb. 5. By Feb. 8, authorities said, Sims, calling herself Shane Ivaroni, had gotten a job as a paralegal in Florida and was dating a furniture store owner.

McNabney may have known little about his wife, but he knew enough to be worried, the sheriff said. McNabney is said to have told a friend, “If anything happens to me, tell the cops Elisa did it.”