Convicted killer Christina Asp is a manipulative woman who deserves to spend at least the next 16 years of her life in federal custody, prosecutors say.

The Crown lawyers made their case Wednesday during day one of Asp's three-day sentencing hearing in Yukon Supreme Court.

In June, the 34-year-old woman was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of Gordon Seybold.

Under Canadian law, a person convicted of second-degree murder is automatically sentenced to life in prison.

It will be up to Justice Leigh Gower, the judge who oversaw the three-month jury trial, to decide how long she must spend in prison before she can apply for parole.

In front of the judge Wednesday, prosecutor Bonnie Macdonald argued that Asp should not be eligible for parole for between 16 and 18 years.

Seybold's body was found in the charred remains of his Ibex Valley home in 2008.

Asp's arrest for murder came after a lengthy undercover operation where RCMP officers convinced her she had been welcomed into a powerful criminal organization.

In secretly-recorded conversations played for the jury, Asp tells the undercover officers that she and her boyfriend, Norman Larue, went to Seybold's property, where the two men got in a fight.

When Seybold appeared to be getting the upper-hand on her boyfriend, Asp tells the officers, she took a bat and struck him three times in the head.

On the stand during the trial, Asp claimed she exaggerated her role in Seybold's death to impress her new friends. She swore she only watched while her boyfriend killed the 63-year-old.

Yesterday, the court was reminded of Asp's criminal history. Her record includes the fact that she was previously convicted of manslaughter and was on the run from a halfway house when Seybold died.

Details of Asp's criminal history were kept from the jury during the trial.

In the previous case, Asp pleading guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to five years in prison for stabbing and killing her then-common-law husband, Keith Blanchard — plunging a 13-inch butcher knife six inches into his chest on Feb. 21, 2004.

When she was sentenced in November 2005, she was given about two years' credit for time spent in jail, leaving about three years to be served in a federal penitentiary.

Macdonald pointed to a number of incidents in Asp's past which she said show the offender as someone who is comfortable with manipulating a situation to meet her needs.

At the Whitehorse Correctional Centre prior to being sentenced for manslaughter, Asp lied to corrections officers. She told them she was engaged to her then-boyfriend so she would be permitted to see him in jail.

Later, she began having a relationship with WCC corrections officer John Emory, Macdonald said.

The relationship was discovered when a second corrections officer intercepted a package Emory had left for Asp, along with a note.

After some investigation, it became "quite clear they were having an intimate relationship,” the lawyer told the court.

Emory was fired, but Asp "cast herself as somebody who was at his mercy,” and no disciplinary action was taken, Macdonald said.

Years later, in conversations with the undercover officers investigating her for Seybold's death, Asp tells her new friends she had "corrupted a guard” who gave her everything from make-up to marijuana to sell while behind bars.

She later added that she "felt bad because the guard developed feelings,” Macdonald said.

These conversations show Asp was in fact the manipulator and not the victim she painted herself as, the lawyer argued.

"It shows the length she will go to manipulate and get things she is not entitled to.”

Asp also told the undercover officers that Emory is now working in a jail for female inmates in Regina.

"I'm not sure how that happened,” Macdonald said Wednesday.

While in custody, Asp was given the opportunity to attend a number of substance abuse treatment centres.

She completed two programs but ran from a third for 20 days before turning herself in.

Since her arrest for Seybold's murder in 2009, she has had nine institutional charges laid against her while staying at the WCC.

These include uttering threats, getting into fights and attempting to smuggle a letter to Larue even though the pair has been ordered not to have contact.

"Even in custody, under the most serious conditions, she could not restrain her violence,” Macdonald said.

The lawyer also pointed to letters intercepted by police investigating Seybold's death while the pair was in custody for parole violations.

The letters mention the murder investigation, but repeatedly claim the pair's innocence.

"These letters were not for Mr. Larue's eyes, they were for the eyes of corrections officers reading their mail,” Macdonald said.

"She could have said nothing about Mr. Seybold's death but she was active in trying to mislead investigators.”

That's not the only time Asp attempted to mislead the police, she said.

During the trial, the jury heard Asp tell undercover officers about hitchhiking with Larue near Whitehorse prior to the murder and being stopped by police.

The pair lied about their names.

They used false names again when leaving Whitehorse on a Greyhound bus after the murder.

Macdonald argued that the lying to police, the fact that she was at large on parole for manslaughter and the more than 30-year age difference between her and Seybold, are all

reasons Asp should be given a lengthy sentence.

Seybold was entitled to feel safe in his home, she said.

"This was completely unprovoked. The first time Christina Asp met Mr. Seybold was the day she murdered him.”

Asp's lawyer Ken Tessovitch made his arguments before the judge today.

He is arguing his client should be given 12 years in custody before she is eligible for parole.

He denied the Crown's claim that it was Asp who manipulated Emory in the relationship and pointed out that it is the guards who have all the power when it comes to their relationships with inmates.

Given her history, she has done well in jail, Tessovitch said.

During the trial, the jury heard about Asp's traumatic early years, which included sexual abuse and work as a prostitute.

She has taken part in jail programming and has "acknowledged she needs help,” he said.

Tessovitch pointed out that the nine incidents during Asp's most recent stay at the WCC span a three-year period and all took place at the old jail, before improvements were made.

Justice Gower has said he hopes to declare his decision Friday afternoon. �