Year: 2018

Juvenile Pre-trial Diversion staff co-author report highlighting benefits of early intervention in delinquency cases

Jefferson Parish’s Juvenile Pre-trial Diversion program is reaching troubled youths quicker than the intervention of the courts, according to a paper co-authored by Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office staff and published nationally this week.

And that’s important considering that youths’ behaviors are more motivated by immediate rewards rather than when the consequences are extended over a long period, according to co-author Blake Bascle, deputy chief for adult and juvenile diversion programs at the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office. Through diversion, youths are reached in a month, whereas through the courts the period can extend up to four months.

“Use of pre-adjudication diversion can reduce the time between arrest and intervention. Diversion services typically begin within one month of the offense. Expedient case processing provides youth with immediate opportunities to achieve program goals rather than relying on significantly delayed court-based responses to change behaviors,” wrote Bascle and Dr. John Ryals Jr., evaluation and treatment supervisor for the Jefferson Parish Department of Juvenile Services.

Vivie Satorsky, of the Pre-trial Diversion staff, contributed to the paper, “Strengthening Interagency Collaboration: The Case for Pre-Adjudication Diversion,” published by the Robert F. Kennedy National Resource Center for Juvenile Justice, which is based in Boston, Mass.

The authors cover an array of juvenile intervention matters in Jefferson Parish. Notable among them is Restorative Practices, a joint program between the District Attorney’s Office and the Jefferson Parish Public School System. Public schools that have adopted Restorative Practices have seen a 13.7-percent reduction in expulsions while schools that do not use the program saw an 18.5-percent increase in expulsions during the two-year period ending in 2017, according to their paper.

Read the paper here.

Marrero home invader sentenced to 68 years in prison as habitual offender

A Jefferson Parish judge on Wednesday (Oct. 10) resentenced Brandon Pike to 68 years in prison, finding that the man who was convicted earlier this year of brutally beating an 84-year-old woman in her home is a second-felony offender.

Pike, 39, Marrero, was convicted as charged in February of aggravated burglary and second-degree battery. The convictions stem from New Year’s Eve 2016, when Pike kicked in the front door of the woman’s 16th Street home in Marrero, ordered her to give him money, and when she said she had none, he proceeded to punch her in the head until she lost consciousness. He left with her television, according to trial evidence.

The woman regained consciousness and called a family member, who in turn notified a neighbor who found the victim on the living floor next to her Christmas tree with gifts still under it, according to trial evidence. She later was able to identify Pike as her attacker.

A Jefferson Parish jury convicted Pike on Feb. 28. In March, Judge Donnie Rowan of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced Pike to 30 years in prison for the aggravated burglary and eight years for the second-degree battery, run consecutively for a total of 38 years.

On Wednesday, Pike was returned to Judge Rowan’s court for his multiple bill hearing. According to court records, in 2011, Pike pleaded guilty as charged to unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, after he was caught in Marrero driving a 1997 Mercury Grand Marquis that had been stolen in Terrebonne Parish. That conviction was used in the multiple bill to enhance the sentence.

After ruling that Pike is a double offender, Judge Rowan vacated the 30-year sentence for the aggravated burglary and resentenced him to 60 years. He ran the eight years for the second-degree battery consecutive to the 60 years, for a total of 68 years.

In explaining his decision, Judge Rowan recalled trial evidence showing the victim’s injuries. “Her eye was swollen shut. She was left to lay on that floor all night, which I believe was New Year’s Eve.”

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

Avondale man convicted of Metairie home invasion

A Jefferson Parish jury Friday night (Sept. 21) found Damon Stephney guilty as charged of the aggravated burglary of a Metairie home last year, a crime in which a victim was shot twice in the back as he fled. The verdict brings to three the number of convictions reached in the crime to date.

Stephney, 40, of Avondale, was one of two masked gunmen who forced their way into a home in the 400 block of Oaklawn Drive on the night of March 5, 2017, and ordered three residents to their knees in an attempt to rob the victims.

The partner of the homeowner, also a victim, escaped the home and was shot twice, in the back and in an arm, as he ran for help up Oaklawn Drive toward Veterans Memorial Boulevard, according to trial testimony. He survived.

Two of Stephney’s sons, Wendell Garcia, 20, of Algiers, and Damon Garcia, 23, of Avondale, have pleaded guilty to their roles in the crime. A fourth defendant awaits his trial.

The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office later found narcotics in the possession of two of the Oaklawn home’s residents, who rented rooms from the homeowner. One was booked and later pleaded guilty, and the other was given a misdemeanor summons. The narcotics were believed to be the reason Stephney and the others targeted the home.

Stephney denied being involved and fainted upon hearing the jury’s verdict, which was rendered after less than an hour of deliberation. Stephney was taken to a local hospital by ambulance.

Retired Plaquemines Parish Judge Michael Kirby, appointed pro tempore to the 24th Judicial District Court’s Division E seat, set Stephney’s sentencing hearing for Oct. 22.

Assistant District Attorneys Rachel Africk and Seth Shute prosecuted the case.

Law enforcement, court officials learn new law helping keep guns out of domestic abusers’ hands

Jefferson Parish Assistant District Attorney Sunny Funk, chief of the Family Violence Unit, and Lt. Valerie Martinez-Jordan of the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office are engaged in a statewide effort to help train law enforcement officers and others on Louisiana’s new firearms divestiture law. (JPDA photos)

With a new Louisiana law designed to further protect domestic violence victims taking effect in coming weeks, the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office is engaged in a statewide effort to educate law enforcement and court officials to ensure that certain offenders are not possessing firearms.

In addition to helping with the training seminars, the DA’s Office on Wednesday (Sept. 12) hosted a regional training session in its Media Room. It was the second of seven such regional events that are scheduled at sites across Louisiana before the law, Act 367, takes effect on Oct. 1.

Based on legislation authored by Sen. J.P. Morrell, D-New Orleans during the 2018 legislative session and signed by Gov. John Bel Edwards in May, Act 367 requires that local authorities coordinate in developing policies on how to remove firearms from people who are prohibited from possessing them because of civil and criminal protective orders and domestic violence convictions.

“There has to be a bit of statewide uniformity in this process,” Jefferson Parish Assistant District Attorney Sunny Funk, chief of the Domestic Violence Unit, told about 50 attendees during Wednesday’s session in the JPDA Media Room in Gretna.

The law requires, for instance, that the sheriffs’ offices, clerks of court and district attorneys shall develop forms, policies and procedures by Jan. 1, 2019, detailing how the process is conducted.

Lt. Valerie Martinez-Jordan of the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office, who has taken on a leadership role in Louisiana in ensuring that her colleagues among the state’s 64 parishes are implementing the protective measures for victims of domestic violence, told Wednesday’s attendees that they’ll return to their jurisdictions and adapt their processes to the new law.

“It’s not a cookie-cutter process for every parish,” Lt. Martinez-Jordan told the attendees.

Among other mandates, the law requires that licensed firearms dealers notify local sheriff’s offices if a person prohibited from possessing firearms attempts to purchase them. The law also imposes criminal penalties on dealers who provide firearms to prohibited people knowing that they are barred from having guns.

Judges also are to order the transfer of firearms to local sheriffs’ offices from defendants when they are convicted of certain offenses, such as domestic abuse battery and battery of a dating partner. Such defendants are required to turn over to the sheriff’s office all their firearms within 48 hours of the conviction or within 48 hours of their release from incarceration.

The firearms can be transferred to a third party or transferred to the sheriff’s offices, which in turn can place them in storage and charge the defendants “a reasonable fee” to cover the cost of storage.

Starting with the first session in Thibodaux on Friday (Sept. 7), ADA Funk, Lt. Martinez-Jordan and East Baton Rouge Parish Family Court Judge Pamela Baker, in connection with the Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence and the Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement, are traveling across the state, meeting with local officials to help them implement Act 367’s mandates.

On Wednesday, law enforcement officials from Jefferson, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Tammany and Washington parishes converged on the DA’s Office Media Room for the daylong session.

Sessions are scheduled for sites in Scott, Baton Rouge, Pineville, Bossier City and Ruston. An eighth session is under consideration in New Orleans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marrero man sentenced to two life sentences plus 50 years in Harvey murders, attempted murder

A Jefferson Parish judge on Wednesday (Sept. 12), sentenced Jacobie Green to back-to-back life sentences plus another 50 years in prison for his conviction of participating in a Father’s Day 2015 shooting in Harvey that left two men dead and a third man wounded.

Green, 26, of Marrero, was convicted as charged Aug. 3, of two counts of second-degree murder and one count of attempted second-degree murder. The jury found he was a gunman in the June 21, 2015 shooting at an Apache Drive apartment in which Johnnel Ovide, 23, and Trammell Marshall, 21, were killed and a then-23-year-old man surviving numerous gunshot wounds, including one Green fired into his face.

Before he died, Marshall identified “Cobie” as a gunman, as did the surviving victim, whom Green shot in the face, according to trial testimony.

Ovide’s mother and Marshall’s mother each provided written statements into the court in lieu of impact testimony, which were read aloud by a prosecutor.

Marshall’s mother noted how Green and her son had been friends. “You stole a life from someone who trusted you,” she wrote. “He opened the door not knowing your face would be the last face he would see.”

Ovide’s mother wrote, “I don’t go a day without thinking about my son. The pain is unimaginable.”

After denying a defense motion for a new trial and hearing a prosecutor read the impact testimony statements, Judge Stephen Grefer of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced Green to two life sentences, one for each of the murders, and the maximum 50 years for the attempted murder.

Judge Grefer then ordered that the sentences be served consecutively, noting that “two lives were taken and a third life was almost taken.”

Green is the second man to be sentenced to prison in connection with the incident. In February, Archie Hulbert III, 34, of Algiers, received a seven-year sentence after he pleaded guilty to perjury for lying to a Jefferson Parish grand jury in an attempt to help Green avoid prosecution. Two codefendants await their trials in connection with the shooting.

Assistant District Attorneys Matt Clauss and Laura Schneidau prosecuted the case.

 

Olivia Matte pleads guilty as charged to fatal DWI crash, awaits sentencing

A Jefferson Parish judge on Tuesday (Sept. 4) ordered a presentencing investigation after Olivia Matte pleaded guilty to causing the death of a Mississippi man as a result of driving while intoxicated on the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway last year.

On what was scheduled to be her trial date, Matte, 28, of Covington, pleaded guilty as charged to vehicular homicide, a felony, in the March 23, 2017 death of James Blackmond, 37, of Foxworth, Miss.

Matte also pleaded guilty as charged to vehicular negligent injuring, involving Blackmond’s 44-year-old passenger; failing to maintain control of a motor vehicle; and operating a vehicle while her driver’s license was suspended. Those charges are misdemeanors.

Matte’s blood-alcohol content was .216, close to three times higher than the legal limit to drive in Louisiana.

In accepting her guilty plea, Judge Glenn Ansardi of the 24th Judicial District Court granted Matte’s attorney’s request for a presentence investigation. Judge Ansardi allowed Matte to remain free on bond, denying the prosecutors’ request that she be remanded to jail while awaiting her sentencing.

Judge Ansardi will announce Matte’s sentence on Nov. 15.

Assistant District Attorneys Joshua Vanderhooft and Richard Olivier prosecuted the case.

Harvey man sentenced to life plus 40 years for Woodmere murder, attempted murder

A Jefferson Parish judge on Friday (Aug. 31) sentenced Ivory Franklin II to a mandatory life sentence plus 40 years in prison, for his conviction of shooting an 18-year-old acquaintance in the back of his head as they walked along a Harvey drainage canal bank.

Franklin, 21, of Harvey, was convicted of second-degree murder in June of killing Reginald Black. He also was convicted as charged of attempted second-degree murder for trying to kill Black’s 15-year-old nephew, for which Franklin received the 40-year sentence.

After denying defense post-verdict motions and hearing impact testimony from Black’s mother, Judge Donnie Rowan of the 24th Judicial District Court ran the 40-year sentence consecutively to the life sentence.

Judge Rowan noted that after killing Black, Franklin fired indiscriminately at the fleeing 15-year-old without regard for the residents who lived nearby. “If you could, you would have taken out both parties in this case,” Judge Rowan said.

About 3 a.m., on May 5, 2016, the trio was walking along the canal bank behind homes on Windmere Court, just south of Post Street in the Woodmere subdivision, when Franklin shot Black with a revolver. Black, whom Franklin lured from his home that morning, never saw it coming, according to trial testimony.

Franklin then shot at the 15-year-old witness, who crossed through the canal water and to the first house he saw with lights on, according to trial evidence. The resident of that house called 911.

Franklin denied being the shooter and blamed the 15-year-old, whom he accused of horseplay with the pistol when it fired, striking Black. A Jefferson Parish jury rejected the defense assertion and convicted Franklin on June 9.

In a letter written to the court, Black’s mother noted that Franklin “was cold and calculated in his deed,” and that he “is the lowest of predator and should not participate in society again.”

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

Gretna resident sentenced to 20 years, fined $50,000 in cocaine possession case

A Jefferson Parish judge has sentenced a former Gretna resident to 20 years in prison for the almost 4,000 grams of cocaine he was found to possess during an investigation into narcotics trafficking from Texas. The cocaine in total had a $600,000 local street value.

Marvin Acevedo, 35, also was ordered to pay a $50,000 fine in connection with his July 10 conviction of possession of more than 400 grams of cocaine. Judge Ellen Shirer Kovach of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced Acevedo on Monday (Aug. 13), after denying a defense request for a new trial and other post-verdict motions.

Evidence presented during the trial shows that Acevedo is using the name of a man who is currently imprisoned in Puerto Rico on narcotics charges. Acevedo refuses to reveal his true identity.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office narcotics agents arrested Acevedo on June 19, 2017, during an investigation into a tip that he was trafficking cocaine into the area from Texas. According to evidence presented to the jury, the agents tracked Acevedo from the Louisiana state line at Texas on Interstate 10 and followed him to Kenner, where they arrested him.

The agents located 12 grams of cocaine and more than $3,300 in cash in the vehicle in which he traveled. They also found he used a Florida state identification card. The investigation led the agents to a storage unit business on Belle Chasse Highway near Gretna, blocks from where he lived at the time.

In his unit, the agents found almost 4,000 grams of cocaine bundled in four bricks, all of which were stashed in an ice chest along with documents with Acevedo’s name on them. Each brick would have a local street value of about $150,000, according to trial testimony. Text messages recovered from a cell phone in Acevedo’s possession were indicative of narcotics trafficking.

Additionally, Judge Kovach on Aug. 9 sentenced Acevedo to six months in jail after finding him guilty of resisting arrest, a misdemeanor. She ran the jail term concurrent with the 20-year sentence.

Assistant District Attorneys Jennifer Voss and Rachel Africk prosecuted the case.

Marrero man convicted in Harvey double-murder, attempted murder

A Jefferson Parish jury found Jacobie “Cobie” Green guilty Friday night (Aug. 3) of opening fire in a Harvey apartment on Father’s Day 2015, killing two men and critically wounding a third man.

Green, 26, who lived in Marrero at the time, was convicted as charged of two counts of second-degree murder and one count of attempted second-degree murder.

Johnnel Ovide, 23, and Trammell Marshall, 21, were killed. A then 23-year-old man survived multiple gunshot wounds, including one to his face that Green fired, according to testimony presented during the four-day trial.

The shooting happened shortly before 10:30 p.m., on June 21, 2015, in the 1600 block of Apache Drive. Green and the victims were among the visitors at an apartment. The man who lived in the apartment escaped by diving head-first through the glass of a window, according to testimony.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office Deputy Christian Dabdoub, the first officer to arrive, surveyed and secured the crime scene, finding victims outside the apartment, he testified. “It was chaos inside,” he testified of the overturned furniture and the bullet casings. “There was blood everywhere.”

He found the surviving victim in the apartment door threshold, bleeding profusely and asking for water. He testified he asked the victim who shot him. “He muttered to me, ‘Cobie, from Betty Street,’” Dabdoub testified.

In the grass nearby, Trammell lay writhing in pain. “I asked him, ‘Who did this to you?’ He told me, ‘Cobie, from the Marrero projects,’” Dabdoub testified.

Ovide died at the scene. Trammell died later at a hospital, according to testimony.

The jury deliberated just over an hour before delivering its verdict at 10:30 p.m., Friday. Judge Stephen Grefer of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Green on Sept. 12.

Two defendants await their trials in connection with the crimes. Separately, Archie Hulbert III, 34, of Algiers, pleaded guilty Feb. 2, to perjury, for lying to a Jefferson Parish grand jury in an attempt to help Green. In accepting the plea, Judge Grefer sentenced Hulbert to seven years in prison.

Assistant District Attorneys Matt Clauss and Laura Schneidau prosecuted the case.

Gretna resident convicted of possessing almost 4,000 grams of cocaine

A Jefferson Parish jury has found a Gretna resident guilty of possessing almost 4,000 grams of cocaine, which deputies found in a West Bank storage unit during their investigation of narcotics trafficking that originated in Texas.

The defendant, who uses the name Marvin Acevedo, 35, was convicted as charged Tuesday night (July 10) of possession of more than 400 grams of cocaine. At the time of the arrest, Louisiana law did not differentiate the weight once the amount exceeded 400 grams.

Federal authorities say that the defendant had been using, among other aliases, the name of Marvin Acevedo. The real Marvin Acevedo has been jailed on drug charges in Puerto Rico since 2014. The defendant refuses to reveal his identity, according to testimony presented to the jury.

Acevedo was arrested June 19, 2017, during an investigation by Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office narcotics agents. Acting on a tip that Acevedo was smuggling cocaine from Texas to sell in Jefferson Parish, the agents began surveilling the suspect on Interstate 10 at the state border, according to trial testimony.

The agents followed Acevedo’s pick-up truck to Jefferson Parish, where they pulled it over in Kenner. Acevedo and another man, who was not arrested, were in the truck.

With the help of a Kenner Police Department canine, the agents located 12 grams of cocaine in a magnetic key-holding box that was attached to the truck’s undercarriage. The agents also found more than $3,300 in cash inside the truck’s sunglasses compartment.

In Acevedo’s wallet, the agents found a Florida state identification card, approximately one gram of cocaine and information tied to a storage unit facility. The agents tracked the information to a storage facility to a business on Belle Chasse Highway in unincorporated Gretna, only blocks from Acevedo’s apartment. The agents also found in Acevedo’s possession a key to a storage unit lock, according to trial evidence.

After obtaining a search warrant, the agents entered Acevedo’s storage unit. Inside, they found an ice chest in which there were four bricks of cocaine, each weighing one kilogram, according to trial evidence. Each brick could have a local street value of about $150,000, according to testimony.

The agents also found in the ice chest various documents with Acevedo’s name on them. The agents further determined that Acevedo leased the storage unit.

They also recovered several “burner phones,” which according to testimony are commonly used by drug dealers because they aren’t traced to a registered name. The Sheriff’s Office recovered text messages from one of the phones that was indicative of drug dealing activity.

The jury deliberated about 1 ½ hours before reaching its verdict. Judge Ellen Shirer Kovach of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Acevedo on Aug. 9.

Assistant District Attorneys Jennifer Voss and Rachel Africk prosecuted the case.