Woman sentenced in slaying

A woman who suffocated her mother in a dispute over $350 was sentenced to 10 years to life in prison Wednesday.

"You only get one" mom, District Judge Sally Loehrer said during the sentencing.

Janet Vener, 40, pleaded guilty in August to second-degree murder in the September 2005 death of her mother, 76-year-old Alise Rogers.

Vener apologized in court and said the things she did while on drugs torment her night and day.

According to police, the day before the slaying Vener went to her mother's apartment on Sahara Avenue near Interstate 15, and asked for money for drugs, but her mother refused. Witnesses said they saw Vener break into Rogers' apartment the next morning.

Vener's half sister was staying in the apartment with her mother, who had just had knee surgery and heard her mother say "Janet" as someone climbed through a window, the police report stated.

The intruder said, "Shut up," as she picked up a pillow and walked toward Rogers. The half sister ran to a neighbor for help, and the intruder drove away after killing Rogers, police said.

Vener was arrested several hours later.

Vener wept as she recounted her life story. She said she has struggled with drug addiction for years but had managed to get off drugs and focus on raising her two children, while running her own tattoo business in Florida.

But when her husband moved the family to Las Vegas, she started doing drugs again, she said.

She said she helped care for her mother, even after her knee surgery, and was ashamed and humiliated by what she had done.

"I believe I can change my future," Vener said, adding that she'd like to start an organization for people who have lost loved ones because of drugs.

Her attorney, Norm Reed, said Vener has struggled with psychological disorders since her early teens and has gone to the state's facility for mentally ill offenders twice since her arrest. But, he said, she is now on the right medications and is mentally stable and worthy of a second chance. He asked for a sentence of 10 to 25 years in prison.

The department of parole and probation recommended the potentially longer sentence that Loehrer imposed.

When on drugs, "she's a danger in that state of mind and she needs supervision for the rest of her life," prosecutor Richard Scrow said.