Month: April 2025

Saleh ‘Sam’ Omar guilty of manslaughter in Terrytown duct tape homicide case

A Jefferson Parish jury on Thursday (April 24) found Saleh “Sam” Omar guilty of killing a man by strangulation and by tightly wrapping his face and torso and arms with duct tape, leaving him unable to free himself to breathe.

Omar, 47, was convicted of manslaughter in the death of Mohamed “Mo” Mezlini, 29.

He was charged with second-degree murder. But during the more than eight hours of deliberations over two days, jurors found him guilty of the lesser offense.

Omar was a West Bank business owner who previously employed Mezlini. For reasons that remain unclear, Omar expressed hostilities toward Mezlini during the weeks leading up to the incident. He planned a confrontation that included tying Mezlini up.

On Sept. 8, 2018, Omar pressured his 17-year-old half-brother Yazan Omar to lure Mezlini to a vacant suite in a strip mall in the 90 block of Terry Parkway, in Terrytown. The vacant suite was adjacent to a cell phone repair shop that Omar owned. Omar had planned to open a business in the vacant suite and had spent months working on it.

Unbeknownst to Omar, Yazan Omar alerted his friend Mezlini that Omar meant to do him harm. Mezlini went to the store anyway, intending to confront Omar. Mezlini arrived, parked his car in front, leaving the engine running and a frozen coffee beverage in the console.

Mezlini walked into the vacant suite, and he and Omar greeted each other and shook hands. As Mezlini walked on, Omar attacked him from behind and held him in a choke hold. Mezlini broke free and punched Omar in the mouth, bloodying it.

Omar brandished a pocketknife and then a pistol and pointed it at Mezlini and his half-brother. Omar ordered Yazan Omar to help him wrap Mezlini in duct tape. Omar then allowed Yazan Omar to leave.

When Yazan Omar last saw Mezlini, Mezlini was bound with duct tape, but his nose was not covered, meaning he could breathe.

Yazan Omar returned to the cell phone shop next door, where two employees were working. He told them what happened. They did not take it seriously enough to call 911. One of the employees heard the wall between the cell phone repair shop and the vacant suite shaking at one point.

Eventually, Omar departed. He left Mezlini locked in the vacant suite unable to breathe, taking with him the only key to the front door. One of his employees saw him walking out covering his bloodied face and driving away. The employee called Omar on the phone and asked about Mezlini. Omar told him that Mezlini had left the premises.

Soon after, Yazan Omar and the two employees, growing increasingly suspicious, used a screwdriver to jimmy the lock to the vacant suite. One of the employees began video recording the scene on his cellphone as they entered.

Seventeen minutes after Omar departed, they found Mezlini on the floor, duct tape covering his face from the bridge of his nose to his chin, and his arms bound tightly to his torso. His body was limp. One of the employees tore the duct tape from Mezlini’s torso and then used a blade to slice through the tape covering his mouth and nose. Yazan Omar attempted chest compressions. An employee called 911.

Suffering from irreversible brain damage caused by a lack of oxygen, Mezlini was pronounced dead the following day. The Jefferson Parish Coroner’s Office concluded he died from asphyxia due to strangulation and smothering. Mezlini’s hyoid bone, in his throat, also was broken, indicating strangulation. He had an abrasion on his forehead, consistent with blunt force trauma.

Omar fled to Central America, where he was arrested two weeks later in Panama and returned to Jefferson Parish to face charges.

“He leaves with the only key that can save Mo,” Assistant District Attorney Kristen Landrieu told jurors in closing argument Wednesday night. “And he doesn’t look back. Not once. He made it out of the country. He duct-taped (Mezlini’s) mouth and nose shut. What do you think is going to happen?”

At trial, Omar’s attorneys urged jurors to find him not guilty. The defense suggested that Omar was defending himself and argued that Mezlini was alive when Omar left him in the vacant suite. They asserted that Omar panicked and fled upon seeing news reports that Mezlini had died and the Sheriff’s Office wanted to arrest him for murder.

Yazan Omar initially was charged with second-degree murder for his role in assisting Omar. He pleaded guilty in December 2021 to false imprisonment using a firearm and obstruction of justice and received a 15-year prison sentence.

The jury that was seated Monday deliberated 3 ½ hours on Wednesday night and almost five hours on Thursday before returning with its verdict. Judge Lee Faulkner of the 24th Judicial District Court set sentencing for May 14.

Assistant District Attorneys Kristen Landrieu, Brendan Bowen and Mallory Grefer prosecuted the case.

Monica Every, Louis Gordon convicted in Metairie murder-for-hire plot

A Jefferson Parish jury on Thursday night (April 17) found Monica Every and Louis Gordon guilty of conspiring to kill her ex-boyfriend’s new lover, a scheme they carried out after Every’s harassment campaign failed to end the relationship.

Their conspiracy culminated on the morning of Jan. 27, 2022, when Gordon fatally shot Every’s romantic rival, Charlene Jones, in Metairie. For that, Every paid Gordon $10,000.

Jones, 48, was shot three times from the back while sitting in her car outside her apartment in the gated complex in the 2500 block of South Interstate 10 Service Road, near Causeway Boulevard.

Every, 52, of LaPlace, was convicted of being a principal to second-degree murder, conspiracy to commit second-degree murder and solicitation for second-degree murder.

Gordon, 37, of New Orleans, was convicted of second-degree murder, conspiracy to commit second-degree murder, of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm and of obstruction of justice.

Every’s boyfriend broke off their 7-year relationship on Christmas Day 2021 to be with Jones. Every was aware of his involvement with Jones, evidenced by the string of angry text messages she sent to him on the day after Christmas, including one in which she called Jones “that old bitch dog.” During the following weeks, Every began an escalating pattern of harassing Jones.

“If Monica Every can’t have him, no one can. That’s what this case is about. It’s as simple as that,” Assistant District Attorney Lindsay Truhe told jurors on April 11 in opening statements. “(Every) was willing to do what it took to eliminate her.”

“It goes beyond obsession,” Assistant District Attorney Matthew Whitworth told jurors Thursday evening during closing argument.

Determined to end the relationship, Every had Gordon sprinkle “voodoo dust” on Jones’ car. She made harassing phone calls, leading Jones and her ex-boyfriend to change their phone numbers.

At Every’s request, Gordon planted a pistol in Jones’ car. Every then called Crimestoppers, anonymously reporting that the firearm hidden in Jones’ car was linked to a teenager’s homicide in New Orleans East. A New Orleans Police Department homicide detective, assisted by Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies, investigated the Crimestoppers tip. The detective quickly determined that neither Jones nor the pistol was tied in the New Orleans homicide.

Rattled by being questioned in connection with a homicide investigation, Jones immediately told detectives about Every’s ongoing harassment.

Every also hoped that the apartment complex management would bar her ex-boyfriend from the property. She obtained court records from Tangipahoa Parish, where he pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 1997, and anonymously faxed them to the management from a local office supply store. Jefferson Parish detectives later confirmed that Every faxed the court records by viewing security video footage from the office supply store.

Every tried to get an acquaintance who resided in the apartment complex to report her felon ex-boyfriend’s presence on the property. She called that acquaintance seven times in one day in this failed effort.

“When she couldn’t scare Charlene Jones away, the evidence will show she paid this man to kill her,” Truhe told jurors, pointing to Gordon.

It was just before 5 a.m., on Jan. 27, 2022, when Jones slid into her driver’s seat just outside her apartment to prepare to drive to her job. Just as she started the engine and put the transmission in drive, Gordon began shooting.

Jones’ boyfriend was among the residents who heard the gunfire and who called 911. He ran to Jones’ car and opened the driver’s door to find her mortally wounded.

Deputies found her unresponsive in the driver’s seat. Next to the car, they found five spent 9mm bullet casings and bullet damage on the car. The bullet that ended Jones’ life passed through her left arm and entered her torso, where it punctured her lung and severed the aorta.

Detectives obtained video surveillance footage of the shooter’s car passing the momentarily untended guard house at the entrance to the apartment complex. Within five minutes, the car is seen speeding out of the complex.

Although the Ford Fusion had no license plate, detectives were able to identify its owner: Gordon’s girlfriend, a 29-year-old mother of four who lived in New Orleans East.

She was initially viewed as a suspect and booked with second-degree murder. She was jailed while Gordon fled to Florida, where he was later arrested. She allowed Gordon to use her car and one of her daughters’ cell phones on the morning Jones was murdered. She was aware that Gordon did odd tasks for Every, but she was unaware of the murder scheme.

She eventually was charged with and pleaded guilty to money laundering for handling some of the money that Every paid Gordon. She was sentenced to two years of probation and testified about Gordon’s interaction with Every and the money Every gave her boyfriend.

Detectives recovered cell phone communications and financial transactions that linked Every and Gordon to the conspiracy to kill Jones. Two cell phones that Gordon possessed were at the apartment complex when Jones was killed, including the one he borrowed from his girlfriend, detectives learned. Minutes after he shot Jones, Gordon sent a text message to her, “$$$.” Gordon even had his mother cash a $4,000 check that Every provided to him.

As the investigation unfolded, Every learned that detectives encountered Gordon. The next day, Every called the lead case detective, saying she had information to offer. She met detectives at a New Orleans coffee shop and, without being prompted to do so, she provided an alibi showing she was at her home in LaPlace when Jones was killed. Unbeknownst to the detectives, Every recorded their conversation on her cell phone.

Every’s and Gordon’s attorneys denied the charges. They said that Every’s ex-boyfriend or the father of Gordon’s girlfriend’s children could have killed Jones. In defending the money transactions between Every and Gordon, Gordon’s attorney said his client helped Every acquire cabinets for her home. In testimony Thursday, Gordon said he is innocent.

Jurors deliberated almost 2 ½ hours Thursday night before returning with their unanimous guilty verdicts on all counts. Judge R. Christopher Cox of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Every and Gordon on May 29.

Assistant District Attorneys Matthew Whitworth, Lindsay Truhe and Sarah Helmstetter prosecuted the case.

Metairie resident convicted of distributing, possessing child pornography

A Jefferson Parish jury on Tuesday night (April 8) found former Metairie resident Guillermo Cadir Lopez-Pineda guilty of possessing child pornography.

Lopez-Pineda, who is in his thirties, was convicted as charged of four counts of distribution of pornography involving juveniles under age 13 and one count of possession with the intent to distribute pornography involving juveniles under age 13.

The charges stem from tips received by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children beginning in December 2020, after Lopez-Pineda twice shared illegal images through Facebook Messenger.

The federal agency referred the tips to the Louisiana Department of Justice, whose investigation led to Lopez-Pineda’s apartment in the 2200 block of Giuffrias Avenue. State investigators linked the illegal imagery to Lopez-Pineda through the internet service provider and his Gmail and Facebook accounts.

After arresting Lopez-Pineda in October 2022, the state investigators found 136 illegal images that were stored on his cell phone. The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office assisted in the investigation.

In testimony on Tuesday, Lopez-Pineda pointed out that he did not live alone, suggesting that one of his roommates could have been responsible for what investigators found on his electronic devices.

The jury that was seated on Monday deliberated about an hour Tuesday night before returning with its verdict.

Judge Ellen Shirer Kovach of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Lopez-Pineda on May 1.

Assistant District Attorneys Erich Cathey and James Wascom prosecuted the case.

Week roundup: Carlton Waller pleads guilty in roommate’s attack; Eder Vasquez convicted of possessing child pornography

Two criminal cases that went to trial this week have been resolved, including one that ended with a guilty plea after the defendant heard his victim testify and the other by the verdict of a Jefferson Parish jury.

AGGRAVATED SECOND-DEGREE BATTERY

Just after his victim testified against him on Monday (April 1), Carlton Waller, 31, pleaded guilty as charged to the aggravated second-degree battery. Judge Donnie Rowan of the 24th Judicial District Court then sentenced Waller to 14 years in prison.

Waller attacked his 48-year-old roommate on Jan. 24, 2022, inside the apartment they shared in the 6600 block of Merle Street in Metairie.

The roommate loaned Waller his AirPods. Waller later returned a different set of AirPods, leading to an argument that escalated to violence. After strangling his roommate, Waller slammed the victim onto the floor and began kicking him in the head and body.

Then, Waller brandished a pistol and began striking his roommate with it, including the face and mouth. Waller pointed the pistol at his roommate’s head and threatened to kill him.

Another roommate drove the victim to the hospital for treatment. In addition to having his left arm broken, the roommate received five staples to close the laceration on the right side of his head.

As part of the sentence, Waller is to have no contact with the victim for 20 years and had to relinquish his firearms.

Assistant District Attorney Taylor Somerville prosecuted the case.

POSSESSION OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

Eder Vasquez, 41, was convicted as charged Wednesday (April 2) of two counts of possession of pornography depicting children under age 13.

The investigation began in May 2020, when the Louisiana Bureau of Investigation’s Cyber Crime Unit received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The case was passed to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office after the origin was traced to an apartment in the 100 block of Raspberry Street in Metairie.

Investigators tracked the images to an “Eder Basquez.” The Sheriff’s Office determined that Eder Basquez is, in fact, Eder Vasquez, and he had received illegal images through WhatsApp.

Investigators found thousands of photographs and videos of a sexual nature on Vasquez’s cell phone, most of which depicted youths whose exact age ranges were difficult to discern. Jurors were shown nine photographs and three videos depicting children who clearly were under the age of 13.

After he was arrested, Vasquez said he was communicating with strangers on WhatsApp and said that he had received and viewed illegal pornographic videos and images. At trial, his attorney argued, among other defenses, that Vasquez mistakenly clicked on links saying “funny jokes” that instead showed pornographic images.

The jury deliberated less than an hour before returning with its unanimous verdicts. Judge June Berry Darensburg of the 24th Judicial District Court set sentencing for May 1.

Assistant District Attorneys Kristen Landrieu and Rachel Warren prosecuted the case.

Winston Bartholomew convicted of beating man to death over a rumor

A Jefferson Parish jury on Wednesday night (April 2) found Winston Bartholomew guilty of beating a man to death inside his Metairie apartment, fueled with anger over allegations that the victim had spread salacious rumors about his girlfriend.

Bartholomew, 62, is guilty as charged of the second-degree murder of Gary Olver, 62, and of obstruction of justice, the jurors unanimously found.

Olver lived in a second-floor apartment above a tavern in the 2700 block of Mississippi Street, just off Veterans Memorial Boulevard. It was there that Bartholomew confronted Olver over the rumors that Olver was suspected of spreading about Bartholomew’s girlfriend.

On May 14, 2024, Bartholomew and his girlfriend saw Olver’s car parked at the building, and they decided to visit. Once inside, Olver allegedly brushed against the woman. Bartholomew then lashed out physically.

“He wasn’t attacked. He wasn’t threatened. He wasn’t hit in any way. He threw the first punch,” Assistant District Attorney Leo Aaron told jurors Tuesday in opening statements.

In a neighboring apartment, a man heard the ruckus and a woman yelling, “Stop it, stop it. You’re going to kill him.” Following a short while of silence, the man next door heard the ruckus resume.

He then heard a final thump: “Gary Olver being dealt the fatal blow that would end his life,” Aaron told jurors.

The woman had left the apartment. Seeing Olver lying unconscious on the floor, Bartholomew sprinkled some water on the victim and wiped his face with a towel.

Bartholomew then walked to the tavern downstairs, ordered a beer and drank it. Upstairs, a neighbor asked the property manager to check on Olver. The manager entered the apartment and found the  on the victim floor, bleeding.

From the barstool, Bartholomew witnessed the arrival of Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies and an ambulance crew. He saw Olver being taken away to a hospital. In addition to a traumatic brain injury that was determined to be fatal, Olver suffered broken ribs on both sides of his torso and a laceration to the back of his head.

Olver later was transferred to hospice care and died on May 28, 2024 after his family had him removed from life support.

Through witnesses and surveillance video, detectives had identified Bartholomew as the suspect and sought his arrest. They arrested Bartholomew on May 31, 2024.

When questioned, Bartholomew recounted confronting Olver over the rumors. Bartholomew disclosed that he destroyed his own cell phone so that detectives could not use its signals to track him. At trial, his attorneys argued that Olver was the aggressor and that their client was defending himself.

The state refuted the self-defense assertions, saying neither Bartholomew nor his girlfriend was in danger of losing their lives. “They had multiple opportunities to just turn away and leave. But he didn’t, and he beat a 62-year-old man to death with his own hands,” Aaron told jurors.

The jury that was seated Monday deliberated less than two hours in finding Bartholomew guilty of second-degree murder and obstruction of justice – for destroying the cell phone.

Judge Nancy Miller of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Bartholomew on Wednesday (April 9).

UPDATE:

Judge Miller on April 16 sentenced Bartholomew to life in prison without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence, which is the mandatory punishment for second-degree murder under Louisiana law. Judge Miller also sentenced Bartholomew to the maximum 40 years for obstruction of justice.

“In your statement to the police officer after you were arrested, you stated you were friends. Friends don’t beat the pulp out of a friend because of something that might have been said,” one of Olver’s sisters told the court in victim-impact testimony, citing Bartholomew’s assertion that Olver spread a rumor about his girlfriend.

Before receiving his sentence, Bartholomew expressed his sorrow for what happened. “I would do anything to change the course of events that occurred on that fateful day,” he told the court, maintaining that Olver was his friend. But he said he is a victim, too.

In response to his comment, Judge Miller told Bartholomew that Olver’s sister, sitting in the courtroom, is the victim, not Bartholomew. “Don’t ever confuse the two,” she told him.

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