Month: April 2016

Confrontation over Harvey mother’s lawn leads to stabbing and a conviction

A Harvey man faces up to 10 years in prison for stabbing another man who was severely injured in the attack after he told the suspect to stop walking through his mother’s yard.

Jessie Havies, 34, was convicted as charged of aggravated battery on Wednesday (April 27), for the Aug. 14, 2014 stabbing in the 2600 block of Max Drive. The six-member jury deliberated more than an hour before returning with the verdict.

The victim told Havies to stop walking through his mother’s yard. Words were exchanged, and Havies stabbed the man using a knife with a four-inch blade. The victim suffered a lacerated liver that required surgery and more than a week of hospitalization, according to trial testimony.

Havies claimed self-defense, asserting that the victim, accompanied by his brother and a third person, did more than ask him to stop walking through his mother’s yard.

The prosecutors argued that Havies felt he was disrespected about the request to keep out of the yard, and that the force he used was unreasonable and unnecessary.

Judge Henry Sullivan of the 24th Judicial District Court set sentencing for Thursday (May 4).

Assistant District Attorneys Lindsay Truhe and Thomas Sanderson prosecuted the case.

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Harvey man gets 25-year prison sentence in heroin case

A Harvey man arrested last year after deputies found more than 50 grams of heroin hidden in a coffee maker in his girlfriend’s home pleaded guilty on Wednesday (April 27) and accepted a 25-year prison sentence.

As his trial was set to begin, Megile Carter, 36, offered to plead guilty as charged to possession with intent to distribute heroin, possession of marijuana and possession of marijuana and heroin in the presence of children.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office narcotics agents arrested Carter on March 3, 2015, after finding 50.7 grams of heroin while serving a search warrant at his girlfriend’s home in the 6000 block of 6th Street.

The agents found 37 baggies of heroin, packaged for street-level distribution, and two lumps of the narcotic stuffed in a sock that was hidden in a coffee maker’s filter compartment.

The heroin was within reach of the six young children who lived in the home, the detectives said. The agents also found a bag of marijuana and a marijuana cigarette in a bedroom. Carter admitted the narcotics were his, according to the arrest affidavit.

With a pool of prospective jurors waiting in an adjacent courtroom to begin jury selection, Judge June Darensburg of the 24th Judicial District Court accepted Carter’s guilty plea and sentenced him to 25 years.

Carter received two six-month sentences for the marijuana and possession of drugs in the presence of children offenses. Judge Darensburg ran the sentences concurrently.

Carter’s convictions include second-degree battery, conspiracy to distribute 200-400 grams of cocaine and first- and second-offense marijuana possession, court records show.

Assistant District Attorneys Josh Vanderhooft and Rachel Africk prosecuted the case.

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Kenner shooter convicted of criminal damage, assault and firearms offenses

A Kenner man on probation for a 2013 felony was convicted of four more charges on Tuesday (April 26), for shooting at a lifelong friend outside a Kenner store last year, and of pointing the same pistol at the victim a day later.

A Jefferson Parish jury deliberated about an hour in convicting Otis D. Washington, 26, of 400 Warren St., as charged of aggravated assault, aggravated criminal damage to property and two counts of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.

The victim, a 36-year-old man, testified that he left a store in the 1000 block of 3rd Street on April 28, 2015, when he saw Washington with a pistol and asked about it. Washington, whom the victim had known since he was a baby, responded, “I got you slippin’,” according to the Kenner Police Department.

Fearing Washington was going to shoot him, the victim and his pregnant female companion tried to flee in the four-door 1997 Buick Le Sabre the victim purchased days earlier. “The first shot hit the door, and the second shot hit the window,” the victim testified Tuesday. “And he kept on shooting … I don’t know why he did what he did, because I never did him that.”

No one was injured, although one bullet struck the front passenger seat where the woman sat, according to evidence presented to the jury. That shooting is the basis for the aggravated criminal damage charge.

The victim didn’t call police, opting to have his mother speak with Washington’s mother to resolve the dispute. But the following day, he said he was on Jefferson Highway at Wilker Neal Avenue in River Ridge when Washington pointed the same pistol at him from a passing vehicle. That encounter is the basis of the criminal damage charge and led the victim to call police, the victim said.

Washington was arrested days later at his girlfriend’s apartment in Metairie, with help from the U.S. Marshals Service’s Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force. Jurors heard recordings of telephone calls he made the following day from the parish jail, in which he said he paid for the victim’s window and referred to the victim as “a rat.”

He said nothing about an alibi, but during trial his attorney presented an alibi defense in arguing he was at his job as a dishwasher in a Metairie restaurant at the times when the victim said the crimes happened.

Jurors were shown photos of Washington holding a pistol that were posted on his Facebook page under the name Dwayne Carter, which is New Orleans-born rapper Lil’ Wayne’s real name. The victim testified the pistol in the photographs is the same one Washington used in the shooting and assault.

Washington was barred from possessing firearms because of a 2010 felony conviction of simple robbery, for which he received a 3-year sentence. That conviction stemmed from his snatching a woman’s purse in a Williams Boulevard pharmacy in 2008.

He now faces 10 to 20 years in prison for each of the firearm possession counts, up to 10 years for aggravated assault and from one year to 15 years for aggravated criminal damage to property. Judge Michael Mentz of the 24th Judicial District Court set the sentencing for Monday (May 2).

Less than three months before he was arrested in the shooting, Washington pleaded guilty in Judge Mentz’s court to unauthorized use of property valued at more than $500, for items police found in his possession that had been stolen in a residential burglary in Kenner in 2013.

Judge Mentz suspended a two-year prison sentence and gave Washington two years of probation. Because of Tuesday’s conviction, Mentz on Monday also will consider whether to revoke the probation, meaning Washington’s two-year prison sentence could be reinstated.

Assistant District Attorneys Angel Varnado and Douglas Rushton prosecuted the case.

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Terrytown woman’s beating death brings manslaughter guilty pleas

A woman and her former boyfriend pleaded guilty on Monday (April 25), to beating her mother to death in her Terrytown home while stealing her drugs, and admitting guilt to narcotics, obstruction and firearms offenses.

Misty Eiermann, 36, and Bryan Schwartz, 28, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in connection with the Sept. 9, 2014, death of Mary Romano, 56. Romano was struck in the head with a blunt object at least 17 times, in her home in the 700 block of Terry Parkway, according to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Eiermann, who admitted she killed her mother, was sentenced to the maximum 40-year sentence for manslaughter. Schwartz received a 20-year sentence as a principal to manslaughter.

In pleading guilty, Eiermann testified that she and Schwartz had been drinking and using drugs that night when they decided to rob her mother of her morphine and Xanax. She asserted Schwartz held a gun to Romano’s head and pointed it at her, too.

“He said, ‘You kill her or I will.’ So I did,” Eiermann testified, reiterating one of the four contradictive statements she made following her arrest.

When he entered his guilty plea minutes later, Schwartz said he helped Eiermann.

After the homicide, the couple fled in Romano’s vehicle, which they later gave to a homeless woman who at the time lived under the South Claiborne Avenue overpass in New Orleans, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

The couple was charged with second-degree murder, which carries a mandatory life sentence in prison upon conviction. With Romano’s family members in the courtroom, Judge Henry Sullivan of the 24th Judicial District Court accepted the negotiated plea to manslaughter and handed down the sentences.

Eiermann and Schwartz also pleaded guilty as charged to obstruction of justice, for discarding the clothing they wore during the homicide, Romano’s vehicle and the blunt instrument used in the homicide. Sullivan sentenced each of them to 20 years in prison for those offenses.

Schwartz also pleaded guilty to being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, because of a 9 mm pistol deputies found in the South Niagra Circle apartment that he and Eiermann shared. He was barred from possessing firearms because of a 2008 burglary conviction in Kentucky. He received a 20-year sentence for that crime.

Eierman pleaded guilty to illegally supplying a felon with a firearm, for providing that pistol to Schwartz, knowing he was barred from possessing firearms. She received a five-year sentence for that charge.

Each also pleaded guilty as charged charged with possession of morphine, possession of Zoloft and possession of Alprazolam. Additionally, Eiermann was charged with a second count of possession of morphine. They received five-year sentences for each of those counts.

Judge Sullivan ran their sentences concurrently.

Schwartz also pleaded guilty to being a double offender on the obstruction charge, under Louisiana’s habitual offender law, for his 2008 burglary conviction in Kentucky. His sentence as a double offender was 20 years, run currently.

During a pretrial hearing on March 12, 2015, Schwartz wiped feces on his face in the courtroom, leading the judge to order to a sanity evaluation to determine whether he was fit to stand trial. Doctors later concluded Schwartz was mentally sound to stand trial.

Assistant District Attorney Kellie Rish prosecuted the cases.

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Harvey Hustler associate sentenced to 35 years in quintuple shooting

Days after he was sentenced for federal homicide and narcotics charges, a Waggaman drug dealer tied to the notorious Harvey Hustlers street gang was sentenced in state court on Monday (April 25) to 35 years in prison for a West Jefferson shooting that injured three toddlers and two women. None of the five injured victims was an intended target of the gunfire.

Frankie Hookfin Jr., 24, who was part of an offshoot to the Harvey Hustlers, pleaded guilty in Jefferson Parish’s 24th Judicial District Court earlier this year to five counts of attempted second-degree murder, aggravated criminal damage to property and aggravated flight. His sentencing was postponed to Monday, as Hookfin’s guilty pleas in state and federal court were a result of the coordinated effort between the United States Attorney’s Office and the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office.

Those charges stem from his involvement in a shooting at the Lapalco Apartments in the 2300 block of Lapalco Boulevard in Harvey on April 22, 2013. Hookfin and a second gunman stood outside an apartment door about 4:20 a.m., and opened fire, authorities said.

Immediately after the shooting, Hookfin led police on a chase across the Crescent City Connection into downtown New Orleans, where he wrecked his car at the Earhart Boulevard exit. Hookfin was injured after jumping or falling from the exit ramp to the ground below, authorities said.

Judge Henry Sullivan of the 24th Judicial District Court, who accepted Hookfin’s guilty plea on Jan. 19, handed down the 35-year sentence on Monday. Judge Sullivan ran the sentence concurrently with a 35-year prison sentenced Hookfin received last week in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

The Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office originally charged Hookfin and three others with the attempted murders, but later dismissed the charges against two of them. The third man, Charlie Gumms, was among the 21 defendants charged in a superseding indictment last year, in connection with the Harvey Hustlers narcotics distribution ring.

Gumms, 20, of Terrytown, pleaded guilty on Feb. 1, to five counts of attempted second-degree murder for the Lapalco Apartments shooting, racketeering, conspiracy to distribute cocaine and conspiracy to distribute heroin. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Hookfin was not included in that 21-defendant Harvey Hustler case, because the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Orleans charged him with the same narcotics-related activities in federal court last year.

Hookfin pleaded guilty on Sept. 22, to charges of causing a death through the use of firearms and conspiracy to distribute cocaine and heroin. In connection with that plea, U.S. District Court Judge Lance Africk sentenced Hookfin on Thursday (April 21) to 35 years in prison.

In that case, Hookfin admitted he was among four men who on Feb. 11, 2013, went to Marrero looking to kill a rival to their narcotics ring, “Buddy Boy,” federal prosecutors say in court documents. Hookfin and others, went to a house in the 6100 block of August Avenue and opened fire as they walked down the street, causing several people outside to flee.

Emeal Washington, 58, who was visiting a friend at the house, was shot dead as he ran, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office said at the time. Gunmen fired 81 bullets.

On Feb. 13, 2013, Hookfin was among the same group that went to Bridge City to attack another rival to their narcotics ring. Hookfin and two others stormed the house, kicking in the front door and opening fire, authorities said.

Doretha Richardson, 81, whose grandson was the target in the home invasion, was shot and killed in her kitchen. Hookfin also shot a cohort, Isaac Smith, in the back during that crime, federal prosecutors say.

Hookfin also admitted he was among the shooters at two other incidents, including the Jan. 12, 2013, shooting of a man who purchased heroin from the narcotics ring using fake $100 bills, federal prosecutors say. In that incident, the victim, his girlfriend and their two children led the gunmen on a car chase that ended at a store parking lot, where the gunmen opened fire. No one died in that incident.

Then, on Feb. 11, 2013, just before Washington was killed in Marrero, Hookfin and cohorts shot at another man, federal prosecutors say.

Assistant District Attorney Doug Freese prosecuted Hookfin in the state case. Freese and Assistant District Attorney Seth Shute worked on the Harvey Hustler cases with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Orleans, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s New Orleans Gang Task Force and the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office.

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Metairie man sentenced to 50 years in prison for molesting 5-year-old girl

A 63-year-old Metairie man was sentenced to 50 years in prison on Thursday (April 21), for molesting a 5-year-old girl who lived near his apartment building.

Mario Chavez was convicted as charged last week of sexual battery involving a victim under age 13. A Honduran immigrant who needed an interpreter to understand court proceedings, he lured the child into the bedroom of his Rye Street apartment on June 20, 2014.

The crime carries a punishment of 25 years to 99 years in prison. Judge Adrian Adams of the 24th Judicial District Court, who presided over the case, denied a defense request for a new trial and ordered that at least 25 years of the that sentence be served without probation, parole or suspended sentence.

Additionally, Chavez will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life if he is ever released from prison.

After molesting the child, Chavez told her to say nothing. However, she went home and told her mother, triggering an investigation that led to Chavez’s arrest that day. DNA evidence obtained from a partial public hair and skin cells confirmed the child’s accusations, according to trial testimony.

The child told authorities she knew Chavez as “Mario,” from seeing him outside her apartment while she playing, according to evidence presented during the trial.

The victim and her family did not attend Thursday’s sentencing hearing to offer impact testimony.

Assistant District Attorneys Rachel Africk and Angad Ghai prosecuted the case.

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Metairie man faces 25 to 99 years for conviction of sexually abusing 5-year-old girl

A 63-year-old Metairie man was convicted as charged on Thursday (April 14) of the sexual battery of a 5-year-old girl who lived near her family’s apartment.

Mario Chavez faces at least 25 years in prison for bringing the child into his Rye Street apartment where he committed the crime on June 20, 2014. Chavez, a Honduran immigrant who needed an interpreter to understand the testimony, was linked to the crime through DNA evidence and witness testimony.

The jury deliberated about 38 minutes in convicting Chavez as charged of sexual battery involving a child under age 13, which has a sentencing range of 25 years to 99 years in prison. Judge Adrian Adams of the 24th Judicial District Court will hand down Chavez’s punishment on April 21.

The child, then a pre-kindergarten student, was familiar with Chavez from seeing the man she called “Mario” while playing with another girl at the apartment building, she told Erika Dupépé, executive director of the Jefferson Children’s Advocacy Center. Jurors were shown a video recording of the forensic interview Dupépé conducted with the child in 2014.

The child told Dupépé that Chavez brought her into a bathroom and then to a bedroom, where the abuse happened. “And then I kept on telling him to stop.  And he didn’t listen,” the child told Dupépé.

“He told me not to tell anyone, but I told my mom,” she said.

The child then ran home to her mother, falling down on the way. When her mother lifted the child’s dress to search for injuries, she noted that both the girl’s legs were in one leg opening of her panties, according to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office.

The child’s mother testified on Wednesday that after finding her daughter in disarray, she went to confront her neighbor. “I told him the little girl accused him of touching her,” the mother, also a native of Honduras, testified through an interpreter.  “He said, ‘No.’ I said, ‘But the little girl said it was you.’”

She testified that when Chavez went to touch her daughter’s head during the confrontation, the child retreated nervously. “She backed up scared behind me,” the mother testified.  “So her reaction, I didn’t like it.”

The child’s older sister testified she was in their apartment when she noticed the child crying. She eventually learned of the abuse allegation against Chavez.  “We asked (her) if he’s the right guy,” the sister testified, speaking of Chavez.  “She was pointing him out, saying that’s him.”

Sheriff’s Office detective Sgt. Terri Danna, then of the Personal Violence Unit, testified that the girl made “a disclosure” as to what occurred and “pointed to the upstairs bedroom” in saying where the abuse happened.

“She was very descriptive of what was in that bedroom,” Danna testified. The victim was able to accurately describe the striped sheets and a pillow on the bed, another bed on the floor, the TV on a nightstand, a calendar on the wall, and a crucifix next to the calendar.

The mother also found a piece of a pubic hair in the child’s panties, which she kept in a plastic sandwich bag as evidence for police, the mother testified.

Because the piece of hair did not include the follicle, which is more conducive to DNA testing, authorities sent the evidence to a lab in Virginia, Bode Cellmark Forensics, for mitochondrial testing.

Adrienne Broges, of Bode Cellmark Forensics, was qualified to testify as an expert in mitochondrial DNA analysis. She told jurors that Chavez could not be excluded as the contributor. However, she testified that based upon her calculations, less than one percent – specifically 0.691 percent – of the population would have the same DNA profile.

Chavez, who denied the accusation, was arrested and had been held awaiting trial in the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna, in lieu of a $250,000 bond.

Assistant District Attorneys Rachel Africk and Angad Ghai prosecuted the case.

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Kenner man sentenced to 35 years in prison for armed robbery

A Kenner man who pleaded guilty last month to robbing a Kenner business was sentenced to 35 years in prison on Thursday (April 14).

Terrance C. Williams, 27, admitted that he went to the Chevron store at 181 West Airline Drive about 1 a.m., on Jan. 29, 2015, and demanded that the clerk give him cash from the register.

The clerk initially thought he was joking and turned away to stock merchandise, according to the Kenner Police Department. That’s when Williams brandished a small black pistol that was in his right pocket, police said. The clerk complied and handed over about $325 in cash, according to the arrest affidavit.

Williams then fled on a bicycle. About four hours later, Kenner police officers were patrolling the 500 block of Salvador Road when they saw Williams with a bicycle matching the robber’s. The clerk, who told police the robber had tattoos on his face, was driven to Salvador Road, where she identified him as the man who robbed her. Williams has numerous tattoos on his face.

He pleaded guilty on March 9 to charges of armed robbery and obscenity. The latter charge stems from an incident in the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center, where on Feb. 20, 2015 he exposed his genitals.

Yet on Thursday, when he was scheduled to be sentenced, Williams asked to withdraw his guilty plea. “I didn’t understand what I was signing at the time,” Williams told the judge of the plea form.

Judge Stephen Enright of the 24th Judicial District Court, who accepted the plea last month, told Williams that by withdrawing the plea he potentially faced life in prison as a career offender if he went to trial and was convicted, given his past criminal convictions.

Judge Enright also noted the discussion he had with Williams during the guilty plea on March 9, as well as his signing the plea forms. “In this court’s estimation, Mr. Williams did understand” his guilty plea, Enright said.

Judge Enright declined to allow Williams to withdraw the plea. He the sentenced Williams to 35 years for the armed robbery and three years for the obscenity. The sentences were run concurrently.

Assistant District Attorney Angad Ghai prosecuted the case.

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Harvey Hustler associate sentenced to 20 years in prison in racketeering case

A Terrytown man tied to the violent Harvey Hustlers gang that trafficked narcotics on West Jefferson streets was sentenced on Thursday (April 7) to 20 years in prison.

Charles D. Gumms, 22, received the punishment for his Feb. 16 guilty plea to racketeering, conspiracy to distribute cocaine, conspiracy to distribute heroin and marijuana, possession with intent to distribute marijuana and possession with intent to distribute Tramadol. He received a total of 20 years in prison for those offenses.

Gumms also pleaded guilty on Thursday to being a double offender under Louisiana’s habitual offender law, in light of his 2013 conviction of possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. His sentence as a double offender was 20 years, run concurrently with his punishment for the racketeering and narcotics offenses.

Gumms was one of 21 people named in a 30-count indictment filed in state court last year, charging Harvey Hustlers and their affiliates in a sweeping racketeering case built around crack cocaine and heroin distribution ring. Gumms was among the last of those defendants to either plead guilty or be convicted at trial.

Although he pleaded guilty on Feb. 16, his sentencing was postponed to Thursday, until after he received his punishment in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court for probation violation. He pleaded guilty in January 2013 to an illegal gun possession charge and two misdemeanor offenses.

For the probation revocation, he was sentenced to three years in prison by an Orleans Parish judge on March 28.

Jefferson Parish’s Judge Henry Sullivan of the 24th Judicial District Court, who presided over the Harvey Hustler cases, ran the 20-year sentence he handed down on Thursday concurrently with the three years he received for the probation revocation.

Two months before he was indicted in the Harvey Hustlers case, Gumms was shot several times in Terrytown. He and Shamyra Plumer, 18, were in his car in the 2100 block of Esplanade Place in Terrytown, when a gunman or gunmen opened fire.

Gumms drove to a convenience store at Terry Parkway and Carol Sue Avenue, where he ran inside the business and collapsed, according to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office. Deputies’ found Plummer’s body in the back seat of the car.

Assistant District Attorneys Doug Freese and Seth Shute prosecuted the cases.

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Former Mississippi auctioneer ordered to pay $261,800 in restitution to Kenner

A Mississippi man who was convicted of stealing $511,000 in auction proceeds from the City of Kenner must repay the city $261,729 in restitution, a state district judge ruled on Wednesday (April 6), increasing the $80,000 amount previously set by a now-retired judge.

James Durham, 44, of Hattiesburg, who with his father owned the now-defunct Durham Auctions, pleaded guilty to theft in August 2014, in connection with the work the company did for Kenner in 2008. Durham Auctions oversaw the sale of $511,729 in surplus municipal property but never gave the proceeds to the city.

Durham and his father, Donald Durham, were charged with theft by the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office. Then-Judge Ross LaDart of the 24th Judicial District Court, who has since retired, dismissed the charge against the father during the February 2014 trial.

Judge LaDart then granted the defense request to recess the son’s case before the trial ended. At the time, Durham was serving parole for a worthless checks conviction in an unrelated conviction in Mississippi.

Six months later, Durham was back in Jefferson Parish, where he pleaded guilty to the theft charge. Judge LaDart suspended a two-year prison sentence and ordered Durham to serve five years of probation.

On the question of restitution, LaDart ordered Durham to repay the city only $80,000, calling the full restitution amount the state sought to be “excessive.”

The Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office objected to the amount and succeeded in persuading the state 5th Circuit Court of Appeal to reverse LaDart’s decision.

Judge LaDart set the amount after hearing testimony and argument tied to Durham’s financial woes, which included $300,000 in restitution in Mississippi. “Mississippi just got to his wallet before this court will,” Judge LaDart ruled.

The 5th Circuit dismissed LaDart’s reasoning on Oct. 14, 2015, finding that while the Mississippi restitution “may be a valid consideration in determining the manner in which defendant should repay the restitution owed in this case, it should be of no consequence to the amount of restitution ordered” in the Kenner case.

“Given all these circumstances, we find that under the facts of this case, $80,000 is not a reasonable amount of restitution, and the trial court abused its discretion in setting restitution in that amount,” 5th Circuit Judge Robert Chaisson wrote for the panel that included Judges Robert Murphy and Stephen Windhorst.

The appellate court sent the case back to the district court for reconsideration. By then, Judge LaDart had retired, meaning his elected successor, Judge Danyelle Taylor, had to handle the matter. She heard argument and accepted evidence during a Jan. 13 hearing and took the matter under advisement until Wednesday.

Judge Taylor said she arrived at the $261,729.29 amount in considering that the Durhams’ Mississippi bank “wrongfully seized” $250,000 of Kenner’s $511,729 that was held in escrow. The bank’s action was unrelated to the Kenner matter. The judge ordered Durham to pay $1,800 in monthly installments.

Assistant District Attorney Seth Shute, who prosecuted the case, objected to the amount Taylor set.

The city of Kenner also sued the Durhams civilly in a Mississippi court in an attempt to recoup its monetary losses. The Durhams, however, had declared bankruptcy. Kenner recouped only $80,000, “which did not even cover the total amount of legal fees incurred,” the 5th Circuit noted.

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