Month: March 2023

Jefferson Parish DA, Sheriff’s Office cold-case team gets Crimestoppers award

 

Crimestoppers of Greater New Orleans on Tuesday (March 14) recognized a Jefferson Parish cold-case investigative and prosecution team with its Law Enforcement Unit of the Year “Protector Award,” for solving and bringing closure to a 45-year-old case involving the rape and murder of a 5-year-old Waggaman girl.

Nancy Michel, chief of the District Attorney’s Office Victim/Witness Assistance Division, Assistant District Attorneys Doug Freese and Shannon Swaim and the late District Attorney investigator John Ronquillo were recognized for their work in solving the sexual assault and death of Stephanie Hebert.

Retired WWL-TV anchor Karen Swenson accepted the award on behalf of her husband, John Ronquillo who died in 2018.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office Capt. Dennis Thornton, Lt. David Mascaro and detectives Jesus Falcon and Jerry Devorak also were recognized for their work on Stephanie Hebert’s case.

Stephanie Hebert went missing on June 13, 1978. Her remains were found five months later tied to a tree in a wooded area in St. Charles Parish.

The case went cold until an effort led by Nancy Michel prompted the District Attorney’s Office and Capt. Thornton of the JPSO Cold-Case Squad to re-examine the case, leading to the arrest and indictment of Jason Franklin Sr., for three counts of aggravated rape in 2019. These crimes involved Stephanie Hebert and two other child victims.

The District Attorney’s Office was in the process of reviewing the case on Franklin for Stephanie Hebert’s death when he died in prison in 2021. Meanwhile, a key witness in the case died tragically in an automobile accident in New Orleans that same year.

“Despite this outcome, and based on the posture of this case in 2021 and the evidence accumulated, investigators have closed Stephanie Hebert’s murder by exceptional means, declaring Jason Franklin Sr., the suspect responsible for her murder,” Crimestoppers said.

Tonny Bauer convicted of carjacking woman at Metairie pizzeria

A Jefferson Parish jury Wednesday night (March 8) found Tonny J. Bauer guilty of carjacking for forcibly removing a 58-year-old woman from her vehicle moments after she purchased pizzas.

It was about 8 p.m., on May 8, 2020, when Bauer, 37, entered the victim’s 2021 Nissan Rogue through the passenger-side door outside a pizza business in the 5000 block of West Esplanade Avenue.

The victim walked out of the business with her pizzas and noticed Bauer crouching down nearby, she told the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office. She entered her Rogue and placed the pizzas on the passenger’s seat. That’s when Bauer entered the vehicle.

He choked the victim as she tried to flee. After she escaped, Bauer drove away. About a half-hour later, Causeway police responded to a one-vehicle wreck in the southbound lanes of the Causeway bridge. Police determined it was the stolen vehicle, and after he appeared to attempt to climb the bridge’s railing, Bauer was arrested.

Police also found the victim’s pizza in the car. It was still hot and partially eaten.

Bauer alleged self-defense, saying he was at his home near the pizza business when he thought someone was breaking into the house. Leaving his shoes and eyeglasses behind, Bauer asserted that he ran to the pizza business and got into the victim’s car in thinking she could help him.

Jurors deliberated less than 1 ½ hours before returning with their unanimous verdict. Judge Ellen Shirer Kovach of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Bauer on March 22.

Assistant District Attorneys Carolyn Chkautovich and Alyssa Aleman prosecuted the case.