Year: 2024

Oswaldo Dachuna guilty of murdering man outside Kenner business

A Jefferson Parish jury on Monday (Nov. 18) deliberated less than ½-hour in finding Oswaldo Dacunha guilty of killing a man outside a Kenner convenience store, two hours after he drank beer with the victim beside the business.

Dacunha, 61, of Kenner, was convicted as charged of second-degree murder in the Sept. 3, 2022, death of Alejandro Quiroz, 43. Dacunha also was convicted of obstruction of justice, for eliminating the 9mm semiautomatic pistol he used to shoot Quiroz, evidence that could have further linked him to the crime.

Quiroz and another man were loitering beside the business at the intersection of Loyola and Clemson drives when at about 4 a.m., Dacunha shot him three times.

Kenner Police Department detectives amassed business and residential surveillance videos from the area to help identify Dacunha as the shooter. Through the videos, the detectives determined that about two hours before the shooting, Dacunha arrived at the business on a motorcycle and used a debit card to make at least two purchases in the store, including beer and beef jerky.

Dacunha drank at least one beer with Quiroz before departing on his motorcycle. About two hours later, Dacunha returned riding a bicycle and ducked beside a commercial trash receptacle behind the business. He retrieved a pistol from his backpack, chambered a round and stuffed the weapon in his pants waistband.

He then walked up to Quiroz and shot him in the chest, face and head before pedaling away.

“Those are the actions of a man who wants to kill,” Assistant District Attorney Molly Love told jurors in closing argument Monday.

Quiroz died a short while later at University Medical Center.

The videos detectives obtained showed the shooter wore the same clothes he was wearing two hours earlier, when he arrived at the business on a motorcycle. Lacking a name, Kenner police issued a press release that included the shooter’s image taken from videos and posted it on social media platforms. Detectives received two tips, both identifying Dacunha.

The detectives then researched Dacunha’s name and found a prior arrest with a booking photograph, confirming he was the shooter. They learned he had been living in a backyard shed in the 3200 block of Arkansas Avenue in Kenner. They obtained a warrant for his arrest.

Dacunha was arrested in Vinton, La., on Sept. 9, 2022, after police there investigated a suspicious suspect complaint. They found Dacunha lying on the ground next to his motorcycle.

In his pocket was the debit card he used to make the purchases at the Kenner convenience store two hours before he shot Quiroz. In his cell phone, they found photographs of motorcycles, bicycles and of the image of himself that Kenner police released to the public in the effort to identify the shooter.

Dacunha’s DNA also was recovered from a beer bottle police recovered from feet away from Quiroz’s body.

Dacunha, who represented himself without legal representation, or pro se, told jurors he was falsely identified as the shooter. He said he was “at the wrong place, at the wrong time.”

Assistant District Attorney Leo Aaron praised the work done by the two Kenner police detectives who identified Dacunha as the killer. “Arthur Coll and Peter Foltz did great work in bringing him here before you,” Aaron told jurors in closing argument.

“This was not a case of mistaken identity,” Aaron told jurors. “He was not at the wrong place, at the wrong time. He chose the place, he chose the time.”

The jury that was seated last week returned with its verdict at 3:40 p.m., Monday. Judge Nancy Miller of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Dacunha on Dec. 2.

Assistant District Attorneys Leo Aaron and Molly Love prosecuted the case.

 

Crystal Coleman’s probation revoked, gets 7-year sentence for relationship with teen

A Jefferson Parish judge on Thursday (Nov. 14) sentenced Crystal Coleman to seven years in prison in revoking her probation, finding that the Metairie woman violated a court order to have no contact with a teenager with whom she had a relationship last year.

Coleman, 41, pleaded guilty in April to indecent behavior with a juvenile in connection with her relationship with the 15-year-old with whom she had consensual sexual relations that occurred in early 2023. In accepting the plea in April, Judge Nancy Miller of the 24th Judicial District Court suspended a 7-year prison sentence and ordered her to serve three years of active probation.

As part of her guilty plea, Coleman was forbidden from having contact with the teenager. Yet in August, Coleman drove to St. Tammany Parish expecting to see the teenager. The teenager’s father spotted Coleman at an event that his child attended.

That led Coleman’s probation officer to go to court seeking probation revocation. In court Thursday, Coleman’s attorney asked Judge Miller to leave her client on probation, saying she has a daughter.

Judge Miller said she regretted her decision in April by granting Coleman probation. “She put everything on the line to go ahead and violate the protective order,” Miller said in revoking probation.

Coleman also pleaded guilty to violating protective orders involving the same teenager. Those stemmed from contact Coleman had with the teenager after her arrest last year for having the consensual sexual relationship with the teenager. She was found to have communicated with the teenager through social media platforms, despite knowing she was to have no contact with the juvenile.

On Thursday, Judge Miller served Coleman with a protective order, barring her from contacting the teenager until April 2031.

Assistant District Attorney Leo Aaron prosecuted the case.

Former teacher’s aide Lance Johnson gets 25-year prison sentence for sexually pursuing a teen student

A Jefferson Parish judge on Thursday (Nov. 14) sentenced former teacher’s assistant Lance Johnson to 25 years in prison for his conviction of repeatedly sexually propositioning a 14-year-old student at the public school where he was employed.

A jury on Oct. 30 deliberated about one-half hour in finding Johnson, 42, guilty as charged of indecent behavior with a juvenile and soliciting for prostitution involving someone under age 18.

The juvenile was not one of Johnson’s students, although they were at the same east bank public school. Johnson began making sexual advances toward the juvenile on school grounds in June 2022. His behavior escalated to offering the juvenile $80 in cash in exchange for a sexual act and meetings off school grounds.

Click here to read about the trial.

During Thursday’s sentencing hearing, the victim’s mother said in impact testimony that Johnson is “a very sick person for putting us through this. You know you were guilty from the jump. Why make us suffer through the pain and anxiety.”

The victim’s older sister testified that her sibling is “traumatized.”

Judge Nancy Miller of the 24th Judicial District Court told Johnson that during pretrial proceedings, she was only aware of barebone facts associated with his behavior. It wasn’t until trial that she learned that Johnson followed the juvenile around school grounds and even drove to the juvenile’s home.

“I did not know the extent by which you pursued this child, and that gives me great pause to give you the minimum sentence in this case,” Judge Miller told him.

She sentenced Johnson to 25 years for solicitation for prostitution and seven years for indecent behavior with a juvenile. She ran the sentences concurrently and ordered Johnson to register as a sex offender for 25 years.

Assistant District Attorneys Leo Aaron and Molly Love prosecuted the case.

A guilty plea, a jury verdict bring justice for murder victim Shannon Young

A Jefferson Parish judge on Wednesday (Nov. 13) sentenced Jenaj Nijay Johnson to a year of active probation after she admitted she helped her boyfriend avoid arrest when he fatally shot his longtime friend during a dice game in Marrero two years ago.

In pleading guilty as charged to accessory after the fact to second-degree murder, Johnson admitted she drove her boyfriend Larry Junior away from the scene after he fatally shot Shannon K. Young Jr., on Nov. 21, 2022.

A Jefferson Parish jury on July 11 found Junior, 24, of Marrero, guilty as charged of second-degree murder. Just two days before Junior killed him, Young, 22, of Ponchatoula, learned he was going to be a father.

On Sept. 9, Judge Lee Faulkner of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced Junior to life in prison without probation, parole or suspension of sentence, and to five years in prison for his conviction of obstruction of justice because he removed the murder weapon from the scene to hinder the investigation.

Johnson’s case was unresolved until Wednesday, when the 22-year-old Chalmette resident appeared in Judge Faulkner’s court to plead guilty. Judge Faulkner sentenced Johnson to one year in prison. He suspended the prison term and ordered her to serve one year of active probation.

Junior and Young were among four friends who were helping one of the friends move furniture into a home in the 600 block of Grovewood Drive. During breaks in moving furniture, Junior and Young played dice for money while their two friends played video games.

Young won most of the games and teased Junior about it. That led Junior to make a remark about Young’s younger sister, heightening tensions between the men.

At one point, Junior called his girlfriend, Johnson, asking her to pick him up. Before long, Junior and Young engaged in a physical fight, during which Young, who weighed almost 225 pounds, threw the 140-pound Junior into a wall, damaging the drywall board. One of their friends intervened. The tussle ended.

But Junior then brandished a pistol, told Young they were no longer friends and demanded the money he lost in gambling. Without saying anything, Young walked out of the house and to his car. Junior then fired one shot at Young, missing him.

After hearing the gunshot, Young hid behind his car. Junior returned to the inside of the house and shut the door behind him. But about 20 seconds later, he exited through a side door and climbed atop a fence. Unaware that Junior was atop a fence, Young thought he was in the clear and so stepped out from behind the car.

That’s when Junior fired a second shot. The bullet struck Young in the left side of his neck, killing him.

Junior then got into the car with Johnson, and she drove away. They returned, leading Junior’s two friends to run in fear. Junior and Johnson left again. The two friends called 911.

The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office obtained a warrant for Junior’s arrest shortly after the murder. A U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force located and arrested Junior and Johnson eight days later at Johnson’s mother’s home in Chalmette.

Johnson was booked and later charged with being an accessory after the fact to second-degree murder.

At his trial, Junior alleged self-defense, saying that Young was arming himself, so he grabbed a pistol as well. He alleged that it was Young who was losing the dice game and wanted to win back his money. But Junior said he wanted to leave, leading to the hostilities.

The state argued that Junior was the aggressor, and as such he could not assert self-defense. Junior could have departed when Johnson responded to his call and arrived at the house. But he remained at the house, belying his assertion that he feared for his safety.

“He brought a gun to a fistfight, and to an argument,” Assistant District Attorney Leo Aaron told jurors during Junior’s trial in July. “That is the essence of being an aggressor.”

Further challenging the self-defense assertion, a crime scene reconstruction expert told jurors that the bullet trajectory through Young’s body shows he was shot by a gunman firing from a high vantage point, and that he was shot from the side.

Jurors deliberated just over four hours in finding Junior guilty as charged.

Assistant District Attorneys Leo Aaron and Molly Love prosecuted the case.

Patricia Tito pleads guilty, gets life in prison for Grand Isle murder

A Jefferson Parish judge on Wednesday (Nov. 13) sentenced Patricia Tito to life in prison, after she pleaded guilty to murdering a Grand Isle man who went missing in 1984.

In closing out one of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office’s cold-case investigations, Tito, 60, pleaded guilty as charged to the second-degree murder of Lester Rome. A one-time companion of Tito’s, his skeletal remains were discovered in a north Louisiana well two years after he went missing.

Rome was 57 years old and the owner of a lounge on Grand Isle when he was last seen on Jan. 9, 1984. Tito, then a teenager who was Rome’s live-in girlfriend, continued operating the lounge in his absence. She continued to live in his home and drove his car until his brother arrived on the island and evicted her.

Tito had told residents that she was the last person to see Rome, and that she had driven him to the airport for a trip. Tito had told another woman that she had acquired ownership of Rome’s business, that he had given the lounge to her and left the state.

The Sheriff’s Office considered her a suspect in his disappearance, but the investigation was suspended because Rome’s body could not be found.

His remains were found in a well on farmland just outside Many, La., in 1986 but were not identified until 2021. The Sabine Parish Sheriff’s Office investigation focused on Tito. By then, she was serving a 40-year prison sentence for her 2007 guilty plea to manslaughter – she admitted killing a Shreveport woman, whom she shot on Aug. 31, 2003.

The Sheriff’s Office joined in the Sabine Parish investigation in 2021. Tito had told a Sabine Parish detective she was aware that Rome was murdered but that she was merely a witness to it. She blamed another man for killing Rome, over what she said was a drug debt. She further said that the murder occurred in Jefferson Parish.

In 2022, Tito then was returned to Jefferson Parish to be questioned in Rome’s homicide. She eventually alleged that she and Rome were entering into a business relationship, and that he made sexual advances toward her. The business arrangement collapsed, and Rome was killed shortly after, she told a detective.

Tito was indicted by a Jefferson Parish grand jury with the second-degree murder of Rome in December 2023.

On Wednesday, Tito pleaded guilty as charged to second-degree murder over the objection of her court-appointed attorney. She pleaded guilty under North Carolina v Alford, wherein she stated that the guilty plea was in her best interest.

Judge Danyelle Taylor of the 24th Judicial District Court accepted Tito’s guilty plea. Tito waived delays, and Judge Taylor sentenced her to the mandatory life in prison without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence.

Assistant District Attorneys David Wolff and Lindsay Truhe prosecuted the case.

Cody Labranche convicted of Metairie double-murder

A Jefferson Parish jury on Friday (Nov. 8) deliberated about 35 minutes in finding Cody Labranche guilty of murdering two men in their Metairie home, including his deceased sister’s longtime companion whom he blamed for her death.

Labranche, 30 of Ponchatoula, was convicted as charged of the first-degree murders of roommates Jonathan Pizzuto, 39, and William Mitchell, 36. He additionally was convicted of obstruction of justice.

Pizzuto had been in a long-term relationship with Labranche’s sister, Brittany, who overdosed in July 2020 in their home in the 600 block of Rosa Avenue. Labranche believes that Pizzuto was responsible for her death. Mitchell became Pizzuto’s roommate about two months before he was murdered.

On Jan. 17, 2022, Labranche drove from Ponchatoula to Metairie and, upon arrival at about 9 p.m., he entered the home through the unlocked side door. He walked through the kitchen and into the living room, where Pizzuto and Mitchell sat playing video games and began shooting.

Labranche then searched the apartment for the urn containing his sister’s ashes but did not find it. He fled with the dog Pizzuto and his sister owned, Dro, and later left it in Hazelhurst, Miss. Neither Dro nor the murder weapon has been found.

One of Pizzuto’s friends who was going to the home to play video games discovered the bodies on the living room floor and called 911. The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office developed Labranche as a suspect after learning he held Pizzuto responsible for his sister’s death.

On the night of the murders, Labranche removed the license plate of the car he acquired from his sister after her death and drove to Rosa Avenue armed with the pistol with extended magazine. He left his cell phone in Ponchatoula in an apparent attempt to avoid its location services being used to establish a record of his whereabouts.

Detectives obtained surveillance video from neighboring residences showing the car pulling up to the residence. Labranche left the engine running and went inside. About a minute after he arrived, two nearby surveillance systems recorded the gunshots. Labranche then sped away and returned to Ponchatoula with Dro.

A U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force arrested Labranche at his home on Feb. 11, 2022. Labranche asserted self-defense, telling a detective that he went to confront Pizzuto about his sister’s death and believed Mitchell was reaching behind his back for a pistol. Labranche began shooting believing he was about to be shot, his attorneys argued at trial in asking jurors to conclude he was defending himself.

However, evidence shows that Labranche was the aggressor, and as such cannot assert self-defense. Ten .45-caliber bullet casings littered the living room floor, in a pattern indicating that Labranche began shooting as he entered the living room from the kitchen after entering the side door. He continued shooting as he crossed the room. “No hesitating in there,” Assistant District Attorney Megan Gorman told jurors.

Further, the victims’ bullet wounds to their front and back sides show they were sitting down when the gunfire began, and they turned to run. They were on the floor when Labranche finished them off, including Pizzuto, whose gunshot wounds include two the back of his neck next to a tattoo of Labranche’s sister’s name. Mitchell was shot in his front side and his back side and died holding his cell phone. All 10 of the bullets Labranche fired struck the victims in what the crime scene reconstruction expert describes as “focused fire.”

Labranche was charged with first-degree murder in part because he had the specific intent to kill more than one person, and that he did so during the commission of an aggravated burglary. The District Attorney’s Office did not seek the death penalty, meaning Labranche will receive a life sentence in prison without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence.

In addition to the murder charges, Labranche was convicted of obstruction of justice because he eliminated evidence by disposing of the murder weapon, which he confessed to throwing in a river. Detectives found photos of the pistol on his cell phone, a firearm compatible with the bullet casings retrieved from the murder scene.

Judge Ellen Shirer Kovach of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Labranche on Dec. 4.

Assistant District Attorneys Megan Gorman and Alyssa Aleman prosecuted the case.

 

Former public school teacher assistant Lance Johnson convicted of indecent behavior with juvenile student

A Jefferson Parish jury deliberated 30 minutes on Wednesday evening (Oct. 30) in finding Lance Johnson, a former public school teacher’s assistant, guilty of repeatedly sexually propositioning a 14-year-old student.

Johnson, 42, of LaPlace, was convicted as charged of indecent behavior with a juvenile and soliciting for prostitution involving someone under age 18. Although the perpetrator and victim were at the same east bank school, the juvenile was never one of Johnson’s students.

Johnson made numerous sexual advances toward the juvenile while on school grounds, beginning in June 2022, and later offered to pay the student $80 in exchange for a sexual act. At one point, Johnson drove to the student’s home.

The student disclosed Johnson’s behavior to another teacher, who in turn alerted the student’s mother. In September 2022, she reported it to the Jefferson Parish Public Schools System, which suspended Johnson pending the investigation, and to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Detectives obtained evidence that included residential surveillance video footage showing Johnson’s off-campus encounters with the student. Separately, the doorbell camera at the student’s home also recorded Johnson driving up and speaking with the juvenile in the street.

Detectives used Johnson’s cell phone records to corroborate the videos, showing his location when he encountered the student off-campus and at the student’s home.

The jury that was seated on Tuesday and heard one day of testimony returned with its guilty verdicts at about 6:10 p.m., Wednesday.

Judge Nancy Miller of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Johnson next Wednesday (Nov. 6).

Assistant District Attorneys Leo Aaron and Molly Love prosecuted the case.

 

Kintez “Kutta” Johnson gets life sentence for murdering Reginel Golman

A Jefferson Parish judge on Tuesday (Oct. 29) sentenced Kintez “Kutta” Johnson to life in prison for his conviction of shooting a man to death as he sat in a car outside a Marrero convenience store.

Johnson, 23, of Harvey, was convicted by a jury earlier this month of the second-degree murder of Reginel Golman, 30. Golman’s girlfriend was seated in the car next to him when Johnson opened fire, but she was not physically injured.

Johnson also was convicted of aggravated assault with a firearm, with the victim being Golman’s girlfriend. The jury additionally found him guilty of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm and of obstruction of justice – for getting rid of the gun he used to kill Johnson.

Golman suffered 15 gunshot wounds on the evening of Sept. 23, 2022, as he sat in the passenger’s seat of a car parked outside the business at Fourth Street and Ames Boulevard. He died shortly afterward.

Click here to read more about the trial.

After denying post-verdict defense motions and hearing impact testimony from Golman’s girlfriend, Judge Shayna Beevers Morvant of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced Johnson to the mandatory life sentence in prison without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence.

Judge Beevers Morvant sentenced Johnson to 10 years for the aggravated assault and ran it consecutive to the life sentence; 15 years for being a felon in possession of a firearm; and 20 years for obstruction of justice.

Assistant District Attorneys Matthew Whitworth and LaShanda Webb prosecuted the case.

‘You were the only demon,’ judge tells murderer Jerry Gelpi in sentencing him to life in prison

A Jefferson Parish judge on Wednesday (Oct. 9) sentenced Jerry Gelpi to life plus 40 years in prison for his conviction of brutally stabbing his neighbor Charles Davis to death in Old Jefferson and then obstructing justice by eliminating evidence tying him to the crime.

“Mr. Gelpi, you’re going where you deserve to be,” 24th Judicial District Court Judge Frank Brindisi told Gelpi in sending him to prison for the rest of his life.

A Jefferson Parish jury last week rejected Gelpi’s insanity defense and found him guilty as charged of the first-degree murder of Davis, 68. Gelpi and Davis lived in the same apartment building in the 400 block of Highway Drive in February 2021.

Click here to read about the trial.

Gelpi, 42, gained access to Davis’s apartment and attacked him in the bathroom, stabbing him at least 16 times. Gelpi initially took steps to hide his involvement, including cleaning blood from the kitchen floor and discarding his bloody clothing and the murder weapon.

But when Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office detectives gathered evidence tying him to the crime, Gelpi began feigning a mental defect to escape criminal liability. He later pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. He testified that he is the “son of God” and that Davis was “a demon” who needed to die.

“You accused this man of being a demon,” Judge Brindisi told Gelpi on Wednesday. “You were the only demon that day.”

The judge rejected defense motions to overturn the jury’s verdict and for a new trial. He additionally heard victim-impact testimony from four of Davis’s family members, including a daughter who’ll mark her birthday next week without well-wishes from her father.

“Knowing that I can never get that phone call again is heartbreaking,” she testified.

Davis’s sister told the court, “I will never get a chance to hug him to speak with him to tell him how much I love him … or just to hear him say, ‘Sis, you alright?’”

Judge Brindisi sentenced Gelpi to the mandatory life sentence in prison without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence. He additionally sentenced Gelpi to 40 years in prison for obstruction of justice, which is the maximum punishment for that offence. He ran the sentences consecutively. The judge also fined Gelpi $100,000.

Assistant District Attorneys Tommy Block and Lindsay Truhe prosecuted the case.

William Frye sentenced to 65 years for bank robbery, carjacking and kidnapping

A Jefferson Parish judge on Wednesday (Oct. 9) sentenced William Frye to 65 years in prison for his convictions of robbing a Jefferson bank and then forcibly taking a grandmother’s car with her 18-year-old daughter in the back seat as he made his getaway.

Frye, 47, was convicted as charged last month of two counts of simple robbery, carjacking and second-degree kidnapping in connection with the Nov. 30, 2022 crimes.

“I do believe you’re a menace to the good people of Jefferson Parish,” 24th Judicial District Court Judge Frank Brindisi told Frye. “On that day, you were a one-man crime wave. You terrorized everybody.”

Click here to read about the trial.

Frye entered the bank branch in the 3600 block of Jefferson Highway about 1:15 p.m., threatening to harm the tellers if they did not give him cash. He fled on foot with cash and carjacked the woman and her two grandchildren outside a business in the 3500 block of Berwick Street.

The teen who was in the back seat of that vehicle jumped out a back door and suffered a broken pelvis as she landed in the street.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office detectives and FBI agents tracked Frye to an Airline Drive motel and arrested him later that day.

Frye’s criminal history dates back to the early 1990s and includes a conviction in federal court of robbing the same bank branch he was convicted of robbing last month, the judge noted said before announcing his sentencing, citing a pre-sentencing memorandum.

“I don’t think you can be rehabilitated,” Judge Brindisi told Frye. “I think you’re an incorrigible criminal.”

Judge Brindisi sentenced Frye to 35 years for the kidnapping, 20 years for the carjacking and five years for each of the two simple robbery counts. He ran the sentences consecutively, for a total of 65 years.

Assistant District Attorneys Eric Cusimano and Taylor Somerville prosecuted the case.