March 5, 2010 4:20 PM

Roberta Busby, Stripper Set on Fire, Blasts Attacker: You'll "Answer to God"

By
Kealan Oliver
Topics
Daily Blotter
(Personal Photo)
(CBS)
LOS ANGELES (CBS/AP) Rejected club dancer Rianne Theriault-Odom, 28, was sentenced to life in prison Thursday after dousing a stripper in gasoline and setting her on fire at a Tarzana club.

Photo: Roberta Busby before she was burned.

Theriault-Odom, mother of four, was sentenced in Van Nuys Superior Court for the Feb. 5, 2009 attack on Roberta Busby, a 28-year old stripper from Simi Valley. The two women had been feuding when Theriault-Odom doused Busby with gasoline from a soda bottle and set her on fire at a club called "Babes & Beer." Employees and patrons used curtains to put out the flames.

Photo: Rianne Theriault-Odom's mug shot

The badly scared victim has burns over 40 percent of her body and has had more than two dozen skin grafts.

Busby, mother of two, told her attacker through a letter in court, "Now you're going to feel the same heartache that I felt when I couldn't hug, kiss or play with my kids or even talk to my kids."

"I guess I'll never know what was going through your mind that night, but one day you'll have to answer to God, and that's more justice than any prison can do to you," Busby said.

Theriault-Odom, who was refused a job as a dancer at the club, claimed someone else set the woman on fire.

Last month, a jury convicted her of torture and aggravated mayhem but acquitted her of attempted murder.


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