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U.S. woman gets life sentence for Canada mall shooting plot

FILE PHOTO: Lindsay Kantha Souvannarath arrives at court in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, March 6, 2015. REUTERS/Darren Pittman/File Photo

TORONTO (Reuters) - A U.S. woman has been sentenced to life in a Canadian prison for her role in an aborted Valentine's Day mass shooting at a shopping mall in 2015, local media reported on Friday. Lindsay Souvannarath, 26, pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit murder. A Canadian man also accused in the plot, Randall Shepard, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2016. The two were accused of planning a mass murder and suicide at the shopping center in the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia. They were arrested at the Halifax airport after Souvannarath arrived from Illinois, allegedly to carry out the massacre. Souvannarath will have to serve at least 10 years before she is eligible for parole, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Her lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment. Souvannarath and Shepard were arrested after police received a tip about their alleged plans to shoot as many people as possible at the Halifax Shopping Centre and then kill themselves. A third man believed linked to the plot was found dead in a house in Halifax. The two men were childhood friends in Halifax and reportedly met Souvannarath online. All three admired the two teenagers who killed 12 students and a teacher in a high school shooting spree in Columbine, Colorado, in 1999, according to media reports. (Reporting by Anna Mehler Paperny; Editing by Tom Brown)