Year: 2017

Kenner man pleads guilty to brutalizing girlfriend, gets 17-year sentence

A Kenner man was sentenced to 17 years in prison on Friday (March 17), for forcing his way into an apartment and brutally beating his pregnant girlfriend, and on a separate occasion, for stabbing her in the back.

Durrell Joseph, 21, pleaded guilty as charged to home invasion and aggravated battery, both involving his 20-year-old girlfriend because she wanted to end their abusive relationship. He was scheduled to stand trial on the charges next week.

The home invasion happened on June 13, 2015, when Joseph went to an apartment in the 1000 block of 31st Street. After forcing his way inside by breaking the door off the hinges, he dragged the woman by her hair out of the closet she was hiding in and beat her, causing numerous facial injuries and leading her to lose consciousness.

She told the Kenner Police Department that Joseph beat her because she wanted to end their relationship. As the officers interviewed her, she further disclosed that on Dec. 18, 2014, she told Joseph she wanted to leave the relationship because he was unfaithful.

During the ensuing argument, as she walked away from him, Joseph stabbed her in the back. Joseph apologized, and he then fabricated a story for police, asserting that she was attacked by a group of women.

The victim told police that she went along with Joseph’s story, because she feared he would harm her if she told the truth.

In court Friday, the victim provided impact testimony, struggling through tears as she tried to tell the court how the crimes affected her. “I forgive him,” she testified, adding that she did not want to see the father of her child spend the rest of his life in prison. “I’m a forgiving person.”

Judge Henry Sullivan of the 24th Judicial District Court, who accepted the plea, sentenced Joseph to 17 years for the home invasion and 10 years for the aggravated battery. The sentences were run concurrently.

Assistant District Attorneys Kellie Rish and Brittany Beckner prosecuted the case.

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Former playground coach pleads guilty to molesting boys, gets 35-year sentence

A former Jefferson Parish playground coach was sentenced to 35 years in prison after he pleaded guilty Thursday morning (March 16) to molesting four boys as young as 9 years old in his Metairie apartments and to taking pornographic photographs of one child.

James L. Prince Jr., 45, known as “Coach Jim” to the youths he mentored at Girard Playground in Metairie, pleaded guilty to forcible rape, four counts of sexual battery of juveniles, four counts of indecent behavior with juveniles and nine counts of production of pornography involving juveniles under age 13.

He also would register as a sex offender for life, should he ever be released from prison. He is not be expected to be released from prison before he is 81 years old.

The plea, to which the victims and their families agreed, spares them the need to testify about the details of the abuse Prince meted out. However, two victims and a mother provided impact testimony on Thursday, telling the judge and Prince about the effects his abuse has had on them.

The crimes were reported on Oct. 15, 2015, by the mother of two of the victims after her sons disclosed the abuse beginning in 2002. Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office detectives learned that Prince met the victims through Girard Playground, where he volunteered as a youth sports coach.

In accepting the plea, Judge Conn Regan of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced Prince to 35 years for forcible rape, 35 years for each of the child pornography counts, 10 years for each of the sexual battery counts and seven years for each of the indecent behavior.

The sentences were run concurrently. Prince must serve the sentences at hard labor and without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence.

Assistant District Attorneys Lynn Schiffman and Thomas Sanderson prosecuted the case.

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New Orleans man gets 40-year sentence in Gretna pharmacy robbery

A New Orleans man was sentenced to 40 years in prison on Tuesday (March 14), after he pleaded guilty to robbing a Gretna pharmacy.

Royal Stevens, 40, pleaded guilty as charged to four counts of armed robbery with a firearm, one count for each of the four victims who were in the business at the time he committed the crime.

He was one of two masked gunmen who entered the pharmacy in the 500 block of Lafayette Street about 5:25 p.m., on May 15, 2015. Stevens removed a semiautomatic pistol from his pants waistband, and the other gunman did the same, yelling, “This is a hold-up! Give me all the money and the drugs!”

Stevens and his cohort ordered employees to fill boxes they carried with hydrocodone, oxycodone and other prescription medications. Stevens ordered the employees into a restroom and told them to wait there until they were gone. The gunmen then fled the business.

The Gretna Police Department learned that Stevens had been in the pharmacy the day before, casing it in preparing the robbery. Security images helped detectives identify Stevens as one of the robbers.

Detectives also concluded that Stevens used his silver Ford Mustang to case the pharmacy and to rob it the following day. Detectives also located bags of stolen narcotics at his apartment.

In accepting the guilty plea, Judge June Berry Darensburg of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced Stevens to 40 years for each of the four victims and ran the sentences concurrently. Stevens will not receive benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence.

A second suspect was booked but not charged because of insufficient evidence.

Assistant District Attorney Joshua Vanderhooft and Lindsay Truhe prosecuted the case.

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Former Destrehan teacher pleads guilty in Kenner student sex case

A former Destrehan High School teacher pleaded guilty on Monday to having an illegal sexual relationship with one of her students in her Kenner apartment that lasted almost one year.

Kimberly Naquin, 27, pleaded guilty as charged and without a plea agreement to carnal knowledge of a juvenile, a felony, and prohibited sexual contact between a teacher and a student, a misdemeanor.

In accepting the guilty pleas, Judge June Berry Darensburg of the 24th Judicial District Court, suspended a five-year prison sentence for the felony and ordered Naquin to serve five years of active probation. Judge Darensburg suspended a six-month jail sentence for the misdemeanor and ordered her to serve six months of inactive probation.

Naquin will have to register as a sex offender for 15 years, undergo a psychological evaluation and receive treatment if needed and have no contact whatsoever with the victim for one year, the judge ordered.

“I can guarantee you, if you violate any conditions of your probation, you will go to jail for five years,” Judge Darensburg told her.

Naquin was the victim’s world history teacher and sought the relationship with the minor student one week after her 16th birthday, keeping her at school after class hours, the victim told the judge in impact testimony. “I thought she was cool, because she paid special attention to me,” the victim testified.

The victim testified that Naquin cried after sexual encounters and said she’d go to jail and threatened to kill herself. The victim said that it was only after therapy that she learned she was manipulated by her teacher.

The St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office started the investigation in January 2016, after the victim’s mother learned of Naquin’s actions. The Kenner Police Department assumed the investigation after learning the illegal activities occurred in Naquin’s apartment on Loyola Drive. “Kimberly Naquin broke my child. She broke my family,” the victim’s mother testified.

The victim’s father testified his daughter’s psychological distress was “the result of the selfish predatory actions of the teacher.”

“School is supposed to be a safe place for children to mature and to learn, and this teacher has ruined that,” the father testified.

Naquin apologized to the victim and to the parents. “I betrayed your trust,” she told the parents.

Assistant District Attorney Joshua Vanderhooft prosecuted the case.

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Mississippi man pleads guilty in brutal human trafficking case

A Mississippi man was sentenced on Wednesday (March 8) to 20 years in prison for his role in a human trafficking case. Pierre Braddy’s guilty plea brings to two the number convictions obtained in connection with the April 2015 crimes, in which a 25-year-old Florida woman was severely beaten and forced into prostitution in Jefferson Parish.

Braddy, 28, of Jackson, pleaded guilty to forcible rape, human trafficking and obstruction of justice, admitting he was one of two Mississippi men to force her into prostitution and keep the money she earned. He entered the pleas late Tuesday afternoon, at the end of the first day of testimony in his trial that began on Monday, when the jury was seated.

The victim appeared in court Wednesday morning to provide impact testimony.

“I just wanted to let you know that I hope when you get out, and I know that you will get out, that you make better choices and that you don’t let someone manipulate or control you and let something like this happen,” she told Braddy. “It was very hurtful. It was very painful. But life goes on. I hope you have a good life.”

Braddy apologized to her. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be a man and stopped what happened,” he told her. He thanked the prosecutors and judge “for giving me a second chance.”

In sentencing Braddy, Judge Nancy Miller of the 24th Judicial District Court called his crimes “horrendous.” Of his victim, Judge Miller told him, “You have traumatized her forever.”

Braddy’s co-defendant, Willard Anthony, 30, of Madison, Miss., was convicted as charged by a Jefferson Parish Jury on Dec. 11, of two counts of aggravated rape, two counts of human trafficking, one count each of second-degree battery, aggravated battery, sexual battery and of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

He forced the Florida victim into prostitution. Judge Miller sentenced Anthony to a mandatory life sentence in prison on Dec. 14.

Anthony initially met the victim at a hotel in Florida in 2015. She had turned to prostitution to earn money to support her drug habit and advertised her illegal services on backpage.com, a website known by law enforcement agencies for its prostitution advertisements, according to evidence presented in his December trial.

When the victim showed up for her “date” at a hotel room, she met Anthony, who was armed with a pistol. She was beaten and passed out, and when she woke, she was in a car driven by Anthony and had other women, all of whom were traveling to New Orleans. Braddy followed them in his parents’ sports utility vehicle.

After obtaining a motel room on Manhattan Boulevard in Harvey, Anthony and Braddy advertised her and other women on backpage.com, according to trial evidence. The victim, after a “date,” attempted to escape with a man who paid her for sex. Anthony pursued them in his car and flashed a pistol on a busy West Bank thoroughfare, leading the man to leave her behind. The victim attempted to get away on foot. Anthony caught her.

As a result, Anthony had other women beat the woman to the point that she lost consciousness, according to trial testimony. Anthony also made the woman lick a drop of her blood from his shoe and announced he would urinate on her if he could.

Braddy stepped in and forced her to drink his urine, and in doing so he orally raped her. Anthony vaginally raped her with the barrel of his pistol, from which her DNA was later recovered, according to trial evidence. To mask her facial injuries, they made her wear makeup they purchased from a nearby big-box store.

The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office Vice Squad encountered the victim while conducting a routine investigation of prostitution on April 13, 2015. The deputies randomly selected an advertisement on backpage.com.

An undercover JPSO deputy acted as a customer and arranged a date with the victim and went to the Harvey motel room. The Vice Squad was unaware of what transpired during the three days prior, when the victim was forced from Florida to Jefferson Parish, according to testimony in Anthony’s trial.

The undercover deputy testified that he saw the victim sitting on a bed. Her eyes were swollen, and she had a laceration above one of them. “When I saw her she was shivering. You could actually hear her teeth chattering,” the deputy testified.

Another woman in the room told him that the victim was not available. He negotiated for sexual services with the second woman, and once the transaction was confirmed, Vice Squad members raided the room.

The undercover deputy immediately drove the beaten victim to a hospital, given the extent of her injuries. “We later found out she was made to wear makeup so she could continue working. She had to make money” for her pimps, he testified.

After she was released from the hospital in the days that followed, she was extradited to Florida, where she had an open attachment.

Anthony was arrested at the motel on April 13, 2015, shortly after Vice Squad members rescued the victim. Braddy escaped in his sports utility vehicle with the pistol Anthony used to rape the victim and the drugs they used. His fleeing with evidence was the underlying act for the obstruction of justice charge. He was later arrested in Mississippi.

Following his prison sentence, Braddy will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

Assistant District Attorneys Lindsay Truhe and Doug Freese prosecuted the cases.

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Metairie man sentenced to life in prison in toddler’s beating death

A Metairie man was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday (March 2) for causing the death of his girlfriend’s toddler, Semaj Batiste.

Troy Kelly, 30, was convicted last month of second-degree murder for the Feb. 20, 2014 death of the 27-month-old boy. His death was caused by blunt-force traumatic injuries inflicted upon the toddler through numerous beatings in their apartment in the 300 block of North Laurel Street.

Forensic pathology evidence presented during the trial shows Semaj died within hours of receiving the injuries that included lacerations to the liver and spleen and broken ribs.

“The one burning question I have is why? What causes a man to beat an innocent child to death?” Semaj’s uncle Gary Bukaske asked in impact testimony. “What could an innocent toddler have done to deserve this treatment?”

Bukaske also said that Kelly will have the blessing of waking every morning still breathing. “Semaj took his last breath in agonizing pain,” he testified.

Life without the benefit of probation, parole or suspended sentence is the mandatory punishment for second-degree murder under Louisiana law. Judge Donnie Rowan of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced Kelly after rejecting defense attorneys’ requests for a post-verdict judgment of acquittal and a new trial.

Kelly told the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office that he was bathing Semaj and two of his siblings when Semaj defecated in the tub. In rushing to remove the children from the bath, he said he may have flung Semaj into the toilet.

During the interrogation, Kelly was observed praying and saying to himself, “I’m sorry, Jesus. I’m so sorry.”

Assistant District Attorneys Andrew DeCoste and Lynn Schiffman prosecuted the case.

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Old Jefferson purse snatcher sentenced to 20 years in prison

A Jefferson man with a history of crimes of violence in the Houma area who was convicted this month of a purse snatching that occurred outside an Old Jefferson bar was sentenced on Friday (Feb. 24) to 20 years in prison as a habitual offender.

Eric Fitch, 37, has four felony convictions, three of which were crimes of violence that occurred when he was a Terrebonne Parish resident. There, he was convicted of a theft, tied to a purse snatching in 2013 and an attempted simple robbery in 2010. He also has a simple robbery conviction, for a crime in Lafourche Parish in 2004.

His latest conviction was for a Nov. 28, 2015, incident, in which he assailed a 64-year-old woman just before midnight as she was leaving a bar in the 3500 block of Jefferson Highway. The victim was getting into the passenger’s seat of a car when Fitch approached her asking for a cigarette.

When the woman responded that she did not smoke, Fitch pushed her into the car, grabbed her purse from the floor board and ran. Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies were able locate Fitch by tracking the victim’s cell phone, which was in her purse.

Deputies found Fitch about an hour later. He was hiding in a large trash container behind a grocery store in the 3600 block of Jefferson Highway. He refused to voluntarily leave the container, leading Deputy Daniel Lassus to forcibly remove him. That led to his being charged with resisting arrest.

Deputies recovered the woman’s belongings, and she identified him on the scene as the purse snatcher.

A six-member jury found Fitch guilty as charged of purse snatching on Feb. 15. Judge June Berry Darensburg of the 24th Judicial District Court, found Fitch guilty of the misdemeanor resisting arrest charge on the same day.

On Friday, Judge Darensburg sentenced Fitch to 20 years for the purse snatching, the maximum punishment for that crime, and six months for the resisting arrest. She ran the sentences concurrently.

Fitch then pleaded guilty as charged of being a triple offender. Judge Darensburg vacated the 20-year sentence she gave him for the purse snatching and resentenced him to 20 years on the triple bill.

Fitch will not have the benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence.

The underlying offense for the 2013 theft conviction was a purse snatching. In that case, Fitch grabbed a 55-year-old woman’s purse as she left a business in Houma. Her wallet fell from her purse as he ran. The woman picked up her wallet, but Fitch returned, grabbed it and fled with it, too.

Assistant District Attorneys Josh Vanderhooft and Thomas Sanderson prosecuted the latest case.

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New Orleans man sentenced to life in prison for killing JPSO Sgt. Tracey Marshall

Three days after he was convicted by a Jefferson Parish jury, an eastern New Orleans man was sentenced Tuesday (Feb. 21) to spend the rest of his life in prison for killing his ex-girlfriend, Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Tracey Marshall.

James Darby, 49, will serve the life sentence at hard labor with no benefit of probation, parole or suspended sentence. He executed Sgt. Marshall as she was returning to her Terrytown condominium on Dec. 13, 2015, after a date with another man. She was 47.

Sgt. Marshall ended the couple’s tumultuous 12-year romantic relationship on the month before she died. At the time, she was assigned to the JPSO bailiff squad at the 24th Judicial District Court in Gretna. She was employed by the Sheriff’s Office for about 10 years.

In the weeks before he killed her, Darby stalked her and harassed her with text messages, according to trial evidence. On the night she died, he followed her as she was on a date that included dinner at a St. Charles Avenue restaurant. He followed her to her home, where he fired eight .45-caliber bullets at her as she sat in the driver’s seat of her truck, striking her five times. Her body was found the following morning.

A Jefferson Parish jury on Saturday deliberated less than 40 minutes in finding Darby guilty as charged of second-degree murder. He was returned to Judge Nancy Miller’s courtroom on Monday morning for his sentencing hearing, during which he said nothing to Sgt. Marshall’s parents and friends who were in the audience.

“I want to hate this person. I want to, but I don’t.” – Barbara George White, Sgt. Marshall’s mother

Before sentencing Darby, Judge Miller denied defense requests for a new trial and a post-verdict judgment of acquittal.

Sgt. Marshall’s mother, Barbara George White, provided impact testimony, tearfully recounting the grief she feels. “I want to thank everybody who tried to help her, and every day I can see her,” Mrs. White testified. “She was a good and decent and loving person.”

She said she thinks of her daughter often. “It’s been very difficult,” she testified. “I can hardly sleep. I go to work, and it helps me a little. But when I’m by myself, I see her. I love her. She was a very good and decent person. She didn’t deserve this. She wasn’t playing anybody. She was trying to get away from it. I couldn’t help her, because she didn’t tell me. I failed her in that.”

In handing down the sentence, Judge Miller told Darby that he robbed Mrs. White of her love for her daughter. And to the grieving mother, the judge said, “Ms. White, you did not fail your daughter. You raised her to be the person she was. And she was loved by everybody.”

Mrs. White, in her impact testimony, recalled the last family gathering two months before her daughter was murdered. Her family misses her, she said. “I won’t remember her for this. I will remember her for the person she was. I won’t let this be a label, because she was a really good person. I loved her, and her family loved her.”

Throughout her testimony, she spoke of Darby only in the third person. “I want to hate this person. I want to, but I don’t,” she testified, breaking into sobs.

Assistant District Attorneys Kellie Rish and Megan Gorman prosecuted the case.

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New Orleans man guilty of killing his ex-girlfriend, JPSO Sgt. Tracey Marshall

An eastern New Orleans man was convicted on Saturday (Feb. 18), of killing his ex-girlfriend Tracey Marshall, a Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office sergeant whom he stalked before he executed her as she returned to her Terrytown home after a date with another man.

In a five-day trial that highlighted the hidden horrors of domestic violence, James Darby, 49, is guilty as charged of second-degree murder for shooting Sgt. Marshall, 47, while she was off duty. Angered by their break-up and that she was seeing another man, Darby stalked her during the last hours of her life, following her around Uptown New Orleans to her West Bank home in a borrowed car.

In the parking lot outside her condominium in the 2300 block of Ashley Drive, Darby crept up on her before she could get out of her private vehicle as she spoke on her cell phone, leaving her unable to retrieve her pistol. She yelled out “Boy!” before her phone call went dead, as Darby opened fire using a Glock .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol, according evidence presented by Assistant District Attorneys Kellie Rish and Megan Gorman.

“This was personal,” Gorman said in closing argument. “This was an execution. The offender stood right by her window, which was rolled up, fired eight shots standing right next to that vehicle, and hit her five times, in the torso and in the head. This was personal, and this was an execution.”

Rish told jurors that Sgt. Marshall took an oath as a law enforcement officer, understanding that she could lose her life in the line of duty. “The saddest thing about Tracey’s betrayal is that it happened at the hands of the man that she loved,” Rish said.

“The saddest thing about Tracey’s betrayal is that it happened at the hands of the man that she loved.”

At the time of her death, Sgt. Marshall was assigned to the 24th Judicial District Court bailiff squad at the Jefferson Parish courthouse in Gretna. She had been employed by the Sheriff’s Office about 10 years, including assignment at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center.

The nine women and three men on the Jefferson Parish jury, which seated Tuesday, deliberated less than 40 minutes. Darby faces a mandatory life sentence in prison. Judge Nancy Miller of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Darby on Feb. 21.

Sgt. Marshall and Darby had been involved in a 12-year but tumultuous romantic relationship that she ended in November 2015, when she moved out of his eastern New Orleans home and into the condominium she owned in Terrytown.

People who knew them told Sheriff’s Office Detectives Gabe Faucetta and Donald Zanotelli that after the break-up, Darby inquired about Sgt. Marshall’s activities, including whether she was with another man. Evidence shows he stalked her and harassed her with text messages during the month before he killed her.

A friend recalled for detectives how she and Sgt. Marshall were on an outing when Sgt. Marshall spotted Darby following them in his car. Sgt. Marshall confided her fear not only that she might lose her job over the harassment, but that Darby might harm her. “He will not let me alone,” Sgt. Marshall told the friend. “He just will not let me go.”

The evidence shows that Darby frequently sent harassing text messages to Sgt. Marshall in the weeks before he killed her, indicating his unrelenting obsession for her. “I just want to tell you I love you and miss the hell out of you,” he told her in a text message on the day before he killed her.

Evidence also shows she had obtained numerous restraining orders against Darby, who in 2011 pleaded guilty to cyberstalking her.

Darby killed her about 9:40 p.m., as she returned to her home from a dinner date. A resident who lived in the adjacent neighborhood called 911 about that time, reporting hearing gunfire. Deputies who responded searched the area but found nothing. Sgt. Marshall’s cell phone went dead at that same time, according to trial evidence.

Another nearby resident later told detectives he heard gunfire and looked out to see a dark color mid-size four-door vehicle being driven at a high rate of speed away from the scene. Detectives later learned that Darby was driving a borrowed mid-size, four-door Nissan.

On the morning following the shooting, a mutual friend of the former couple, who lived in the same complex as Sgt. Marshall, called 911 after seeing the driver’s side window of her 2010 Ford Expedition shattered and hair hanging out that window.

Deputies found Sgt. Marshall slumped against the driver’s door. She was shot in the head, face, arm and back. Deputies also found eight spent .45-caliber bullet casings on the ground outside her vehicle.

Her personal belongings, including her purse, cell phone and pistol, were in her vehicle and undisturbed, indicating that robbery was not a motive in her death.

Darby immediately fled to Tuscaloosa, Ala., after killing her, showing up unannounced at a friend’s home, where he spent the night, and then went to a woman’s home asking to take a bath. He was located in Tuscaloosa two days after the homicide by the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Recovery Task Force.

During the interrogation by Faucetta and Zanotelli in Alabama, Darby denied killing Sgt. Marshall. He admitted to stalking her frequently, including on the night of her death.

He asserted he was driving on St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans when he “happened upon” her in her SUV. He said he followed her back to the West Bank and parked near her condominium. He admitted he was near her apartment in the borrowed car when she arrived. He also admitted he got out of his car, but he maintained he did not shoot her.

“I stood there, and I wouldn’t go any further,” Darby told the detectives during the videotaped interrogation shown to jurors. This would have happened about the same time Sgt. Marshall was killed, evidence shows. Yet Darby maintained he neither killed her nor saw who did it.

Detectives obtained cellular phone evidence that proved that Darby was stalking Sgt. Marshall. Authorities in Alabama obtained the data from Darby’s cell phone, showing that he used a Google Maps app to search for her Terrytown residence, and for the St. Charles Avenue restaurant in New Orleans where she and her date had dinner hours before she was killed, Faucetta testified.

Other cell phone data showed Darby was at numerous locations around where Sgt. Marshall was with her date in New Orleans in the hours before she was killed, Faucetta testified. Further, Darby’s cell phone data showed he was near Sgt. Marshall’s neighborhood around the time of the homicide.

His text messaging history included his asking his son for “a heater” so he could go hunting, suggesting he was seeking a gun. Deputies have not recovered the pistol that Darby used to kill Sgt. Marshall.

Assistant District Attorneys Kellie Rish and Megan Gorman prosecuted the case.

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Metairie man guilty of killing girlfriend’s toddler son

A Metairie man has been convicted of the second-degree murder of his girlfriend’s 27-month-old son, who died from blunt-force traumatic injuries caused by numerous beatings.

Troy Kelly, 30, faces a mandatory life sentence in prison for causing the death of Semaj Batiste on the evening of Feb. 20, 2014 or early the following morning in their apartment in the 300 block of North Laurel Street.

The autopsy, conducted by the Jefferson Parish Coroner’s Office, revealed the toddler had suffered numerous injuries, including lacerations to the liver and spleen and broken ribs. The injuries were inflicted within hours of his death, and some were so severe that he likely would not have survived even had he received medical attention, according to the Coroner’s Office.

The pathologist’s findings contradicted Kelly’s assertions that Batiste received the injuries from a single event. When questioned by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, Kelly said he had bathed Batiste and two of his older siblings together the night before the death.

Kelly said Batiste defecated in the tub, and that three children were playing with the stool when he discovered what happened. He said he quickly pulled the children out of the tub, and in doing so he might have flung Semaj into the toilet.

Pressed by detectives who knew about the autopsy results, Kelly denied physically abusing the child. But prior to partially confessing, Kelly was observed praying and heard saying, “I’m sorry, Jesus. I’m so sorry.”

The toddler’s mother called 911 on the morning of Feb. 21, 2014, after discovering her son was not breathing. The night before, the mother said she had put her toddler and two of his older siblings to bed when she noticed he was not feeling well. Believing her son was getting sick, she gave him Tylenol.

A Jefferson Parish jury deliberated about two hours before returning with its verdict on Thursday afternoon (Feb. 16). Judge Donnie Rowan of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Kelly on March 2.

Assistant District Attorneys Andrew DeCoste and Lynn Schiffman prosecuted the case.

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