Month: February 2025

Paul J. Beebe Jr. convicted of raping 59-year-old Metairie woman

A Jefferson Parish jury on Wednesday (Feb. 12) found Paul J. Beebe Jr. guilty of raping a woman in a Metairie apartment.

Beebe, 65, of St. Rose, was convicted as charged of the first-degree rape of the diminutive 59-year-old woman on May 13, 2023.

The victim, a friend of Beebe’s brother, was at the brother’s apartment in the 6300 block of Riverside Drive on the night before she was raped. Beebe was there, too, and became so intoxicated that he passed out and slept on the living room floor where he fell. The following morning, he groped the victim as she slept on a recliner.

After his brother left for work, his behavior escalated. “I got you now,” he told the victim. He beat and dragged the victim across the floor to the bedroom, where he strangled and raped her. Afterward, he fell asleep while sitting at the kitchen table. Suffering with abrasions and other injuries to her face, wrist, back and hip and cloaked only with a bed sheet, the victim fled.

The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office was notified. Swabs collected during the victim’s sexual assault examination revealed the presence of Beebe’s DNA. At trial, Beebe suggested alternatively that the victim consented to sexual activity, but also that he was unable to complete a sexual act.

The jury that was seated Monday deliberated about 2 ½ hours Wednesday in finding Beebe guilty as charged.

Judge Shayna Beevers Morvant of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Beebe on Tuesday (Feb. 18).

Assistant District Attorneys Brendan Bowen and Lindsay Truhe prosecuted the case.

Tyrone Constant guilty of attempted murder of Harvey pizza business employee

A Jefferson Parish jury deliberated 25 minutes on Wednesday (Feb. 5) in finding Tyrone Constant guilty of trying to kill a 20-year-old employee of a West Bank pizza business by brutally attacking her with a machete-type knife.

Constant, 40, of Harvey, was convicted as charged of attempted second-degree murder in connection with the May 23, 2020 attack inside a business in the 1600 block of Gretna Boulevard.

The victim and her 52-year-old co-worker were the only employees working on that Saturday night during Memorial Day weekend. Constant had been in the business numerous times before. Both employees working that night were familiar with Constant by his first name, Tyrone.

Wearing a mask because of the COVID-19 pandemic and his head partially covered by a hoodie and cap, Constant walked in from the rain about 9 p.m. and asked the victim about whether the business was hiring. He placed the backpack he carried on the sales counter in front of him. He and the victim chatted.

Within two minutes of arriving and without provocation, Constant pulled a knife out of his backpack, jumped over the counter and chased both employees.

They fled out the rear door. The 52-year-old woman ran to a neighboring business to call 911, glancing back to see Constant hacking her coworker amid her screams. When the screaming stopped, she testified she thought the victim had died.

The victim played dead on the ground outside. After Constant fled, she returned to the inside of the business and eventually collapsed. Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies found her in a pool of her blood and suffering from extensive injuries. Gashes to her head suggested he had the intent to kill her. The victim eventually underwent 15 surgeries and years of physical therapy.

Detectives started the investigation with only the first name of the perpetrator based off the victim and witness’s statements. Detectives quickly received an anonymous tip about a possible suspect with the first name “Tyrone”. A photographic line-up was shown to the victim including that man. The victim did not recognize any of the photographs.

The following day, the victim’s co-worker contacted the Sheriff’s Office, providing detectives with Constant’s full name. The detectives later returned to the victim with a second photographic lineup, this one including Constant’s photograph. She immediately pointed out Constant.

The co-worker, when shown a lineup, selected Constant and said she was “100-percent certain” that he was the attacker.

On May 27, 2020, at about 1:15 a.m., a deputy patrolling Harvey spotted Constant in a convenience store in the 1600 block of Lapalco Boulevard. The deputy recognized Constant from a wanted bulletin associated with the attack and arrested him. The weapon Constant used has not been recovered.

Jurors also heard testimony about Constant previously having been fired from a pizza restaurant nearby. He had returned to his former workplace at a later date, drew a knife, and was forcibly removed by three employees.

At trial, Constant’s defense attorney challenged the veracity of the victim’s and coworker’s identifying his client as the perpetrator. He further assailed the Sheriff’s Office for failing to try to get fingerprints from the business to confirm the identity of the perpetrator.

Constant was tried in absentia because he refused to leave his cell at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center.

Judge Jacqueline Maloney of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Constant on Feb. 21.

Assistant District Attorneys Kristen Landrieu and Ashton Robinson prosecuted the case.

 

Convicted of killing teen at a Marrero playground, Elijah Augustus and Trenton Tatum sentenced to life in prison

A Jefferson Parish judge on Wednesday (Feb. 5), sentenced two Harvey men to spend the rest of their lives in prison for their convictions of luring a teenager to a public playground in Marrero with claims of selling him a gun but instead shooting him to death while trying to rob him.

Elijah Augustus, 23, and Trenton Tatum, 33, were convicted as charged last month of the second-degree murder of 19-year-old Hassan Veal, who died at Pard Playground on the night of Aug. 5, 2021. They additionally were convicted of conspiracy to commit armed robbery.

A third defendant, Tyron Edwards, 23, of Harvey, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and conspiracy to commit armed robbery on Sept. 10, 2024. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Evidence shows that Edwards, who is Tatum’s nephew, fired one shot but did not shoot at Veal.

“They stole an innocent man’s life away from him and from his family for no good reason at all,” Assistant District Attorney Leo Aaron told jurors in closing argument on Jan. 10. “They took from him everything he was and everything he will ever be.”

On Wednesday, Augustus and Tatum were returned to 24th Judicial District Judge Michael Mentz’s courtroom to be sentenced. Veal’s mother, sister, aunt, cousin and high school history teacher each provided victim-impact testimony.

They described Veal as “a bright light” in their lives, who in younger years portrayed Jesus and a king during Christmas pageants at their church, who attended college studying to become an engineer and who encouraged his elderly grandmother to open a Facebook account “so she could stay in touch with the world.” Now, the family can only visit his grave and dwell on “what could have been,” they testified.

Responding to reports of gunfire on the night of Aug. 5, 2021, Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies found Veal about 10:30 p.m., lying near the concrete drainage canal bank next to Pard Playground. He had been shot nine times, including once in the face, and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Just over three hours earlier, Veal electronically sent $666 to Augustus via Cash App as payment for a gun. That night, Veal and his girlfriend drove to the playground, expecting to meet Augustus to get the gun.

Edwards, Augustus and Tatum arrived at Pard earlier to await Veal’s arrival. After he arrived, Veal approached Edwards, who sat in his car. Tatum and Augustus emerged from hiding with guns drawn and demanded money from Veal.

Veal told the gunmen that he had no money. His girlfriend sat in his car nearby as the robbery unfolded. Armed with an assault-style pistol, Tatum, wearing a mask, confronted the girlfriend and ordered her to turn over money.

Veal called out that she had nothing. He tried to flee but could not escape. Moments later, the gunmen opened fire on Veal.

The incident was recorded by a nearby residential security system, showing the muzzle flashes, beginning from the one Edwards fired as he stepped out of his car and those Tatum and Augustus fired.

Tatum “for no reason, completely unprovoked, unloads 26 rounds at Hassan Veal. A bright constant muzzle flash from a semi-automatic rifle, bullet after bullet at an unarmed 19-year-old begging for his life,” Assistant DA Aaron told jurors last month, describing the surveillance video recording.

Veal’s girlfriend fled in his car but returned after the gunmen sped away and remained until deputies arrived.

In all, thirty-one bullet casings, fired by three firearms, were recovered at the murder scene. Twenty-six of those bullets were .223-caliber and 5.56 mm, all fired from the same weapon – Tatum’s. Deputies also found an iPhone, which the Sheriff’s Office Digital Forensic Unit determined belonged to Edwards. He dropped it during the crime. It led to his arrest.

The Digital Forensic Unit found text messages on Edwards’ phone showing that he was communicating with Augustus, including a message saying “Y’all seen that car,” a message coinciding with the timing of Veal’s arrival at the playground.

As the investigation unfolded, detectives arrested Augustus. The Digital Forensic Unit found that Augustus had been in contact with Veal seven times during the day of the murder. The last call between Augustus and Veal was at 10:24 p.m., three minutes before the first of six 911 calls reporting gunfire was made.

Augustus also was in contact with Tatum, who days before the murder discussed setting up “a lick,” or an armed robbery. They had a similar exchange on the day of the murder, in which Tatum asked Augustus about setting up a robbery. Augustus replied that he had something in mind – Veal.

The Sheriff’s Office further confirmed through Cash App that Veal transferred $666 to Augustus 3 ½ hours before the homicide. The detectives also gathered evidence through Augustus’ cell phone location services showing he was at the playground during the murder.

On Aug. 11, 2021, Tatum was located and arrested at a motel in the 5300 block of the Westbank Expressway in Marrero. A .40-caliber pistol found in the motel room. The Sheriff’s Office Crime Lab determined it was used in the murder.

Detectives also searched Tatum’s cell phone and learned that two hours after the murder, he used the device to search for news stories about the murder. He also searched the internet for his name in association with Veal’s murder, and inquired about criminal defenses, including how to defend oneself from assertions raised by “a snitch.”

Tatum additionally was convicted of two counts of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. He was forbidden from possessing firearms because of his 2010 convictions of attempted second-degree murder, for which he received a 15-year prison sentence.

The defense attorneys argued that Tatum and Augustus were wrongly accused and are innocent. They assailed the prosecution’s key witness as being untruthful and sought to undermine the Sheriff’s Office investigation.

The jury deliberated about three hours on Jan. 10 in finding Tatum and Augustus guilty as charged.

In addition to sentencing the duo to life in prison for the murder, Judge Mentz ordered each man to serve 49 years in prison for conspiracy to commit armed robbery. The judge also sentenced Tatum to two 20-year sentences for each of the firearm possession counts. All sentences were run concurrently.

After the sentencing hearing, Augustus pleaded guilty to unrelated charges of possession of Tramadol, possession of a firearm while in possession of a controlled dangerous substance (marijuana), and to misdemeanor charges of marijuana possession and disturbing the peace. Judge Mentz sentenced Augustus to five years for each of the felonies, and six months and a $100 fine for the misdemeanors.

Assistant District Attorneys Leo Aaron and James Wascom prosecuted the case.