Trina M. Labatt was a 26-year-old mother of two young sons who lived in a quiet, upscale suburb of Sacramento, California. In 1996, she and her husband, Richard Labatt, moved into a new home on Laguna Pointe Way in the Laguna area of Elk Grove. They arrived within days of their new next-door neighbors, Stephen and Melissa La Franco, and the two families, both with young children, quickly became close friends. Neighbors remembered them as friendly and sociable, often seeing them walking together to local restaurants.
The friendship that once defined their lives took a dark turn in 1999 as both marriages began to fail. Stephen La Franco, a 35-year-old state correctional officer, and his wife separated amicably, with Stephen remaining in the family home. The Labatts' marriage, however, ended with much more bitterness. On May 1, 1999, during an argument where Richard accused Trina of having an affair with a neighbor, he slapped her.
This led to a misdemeanor battery charge against Richard, who was 27 at the time. A warrant was issued for his arrest in June, but it was one of thousands of outstanding misdemeanor cases and was never served. Richard Labatt moved out of the home, and in the following months, Trina began a new relationship with Stephen La Franco. Friends said it was the happiest they had ever seen him.
On the evening of August 19, 1999, the domestic turmoil culminated in a horrific act of violence. Shortly after 7:30 p.m., Richard Labatt drove his Mercedes convertible to his former home on Laguna Pointe Way, parking behind Stephen La Franco's Ford Explorer. He walked to the front door carrying a recently purchased 9 mm pistol. When Stephen answered, Richard shot him in the head. A neighbor across the street, Mindy Kohler, heard Stephen ask, "What's going on?" followed by three gunshots and Trina screaming, "No."
Richard Labatt then forced his way into the house and shot Trina. He proceeded upstairs, where he found his two sons, nine-year-old Bradley and five-year-old Cody, with Stephen La Franco's two young daughters, Samantha, 8, and Jessica, 5. He ordered the girls to leave the room. According to the account Jessica later gave to the neighbor, Richard told his sons to kneel down, covered their heads with a pillow, and shot each of them. He then turned the gun on himself, taking his own life. His body was found near his older son.
The La Franco girls ran to Mindy Kohler's house for help, and she immediately called 911. When Kohler went inside the Labatt home, she found Stephen La Franco still breathing and stayed with him, holding him until paramedics arrived. The scene was one of unimaginable carnage. Trina, her son Bradley, and Richard Labatt were pronounced dead at the house. Stephen La Franco was rushed to UC Davis Medical Center but never regained consciousness and died early the next morning. Little Cody Labatt clung to life until the following afternoon, when he stopped breathing as relatives were discussing whether to remove life support.
The quintuple murder-suicide was the largest single slaying in Sacramento since a siege at a Good Guys electronics store in 1991 left six people dead. The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department investigated, but with the perpetrator deceased, the case was quickly closed. There were no suspects to pursue and no arrests to be made. The community was left in shock, grappling with the loss of five lives in an act of extreme family violence. The tragedy served as a devastating reminder of the potential for domestic disputes to escalate into unthinkable violence, leaving a permanent scar on a once-peaceful suburban neighborhood.
