Denise Lipscomb avoided a death sentence Friday, but she must spend 43 years in prison.

        A Hamilton County jury decided the Winton Place woman should not be sent to Ohio's death row for shooting to death Cincinnati cab driver John Arcady.

Denise Lipscomb

        If the jury had recommended death, Ms. Lipscomb would have become the only woman in Ohio on death row.

        Instead, the jury recommended a sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole for at least 30 years. Common Pleas Judge Thomas Crush accepted the recommendation and added 13 years for aggravated robbery.

        Ms. Lipscomb, 27, told the judge she regrets firing the fatal shot. She made similar comments earlier this week in court.

        “I'm sorry,” Ms. Lipscomb said. “I still mean that today.”

        Prosecutors say Ms. Lipscomb and three others planned and carried out the robbery on Sept. 27, 1999. Ms. Lipscomb held a gun to Mr. Arcady's head and pulled the trigger.

        Prosecutors argued that Ms. Lipscomb intended to kill the 49-year-old driver, but defense attorneys and Ms. Lipscomb said she didn't mean for the gun to go off.

        Mr. Arcady's mother, Sally, said she is satisfied with the verdict because it means Ms. Lipscomb will spend most of her life in prison. She will not be eligible for parole until she is 70.

        “She took from me my precious son,” Mrs. Arcady said. “She left me with a grave and a tombstone.”

        Ms. Lipscomb's mother, Betty Thompson, said she was relieved her daughter will avoid a death sentence. Ms. Lipscomb's attorneys asked the judge to impose a minimum sentence for the robbery, which would have shaved seven years from her sentence.

        But Judge Crush refused. “This is a serious, serious offense,” the judge said. “She took a life, and she has to pay the consequences.”

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