Author: Paul Purpura

Lucien Bazley guilty of manslaughter in Marrero shooting

A Jefferson Parish jury on Monday (Oct. 20) found Lucien Bazley guilty of manslaughter, rejecting his assertion that he was defending himself when he shot a man in the face in a Marrero parking lot.

Bazley, 50, was on parole when he killed Wayne Martin on the night of Sept. 25, 2022. Martin, who was celebrating his 30th birthday, was shot in the right eye, collapsed and died in an Ames Boulevard auto parts business parking lot. Moments earlier, Martin, his older sister and a host of others were celebrating the occasion in a lounge across the street from the homicide scene.

Jurors declined to find Bazley guilty as charged of second-degree murder, opting instead to convict him of the lesser charge of manslaughter. It carries a sentence of up to 40 years in prison.

Bazley told jurors that he had been wrongly suspected on the streets of killing a man who was associated with Martin. Bazley alleged that Martin was walking behind him when he brandished a firearm and prepared to shoot him.

The incident, which was recorded by a nearby business’s video security system, shows Bazley walking ahead of Martin and without provocation, he turned and shot Martin. Martin immediately collapsed.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies found no firearms on Martin’s body on the scene, undercutting Bazley’s self-defense claim. A social media video later surfaced showing Martin dancing inside the lounge and brandishing what appeared to be a firearm. The state argued that Bazley’s defense belies reason that if he was in fear for his life, he would not have turned his back on man he says had threatened him.

“He did not kill Wayne Martin in self-defense,” Assistant District Attorney Sarah Helmstetter told jurors Monday in closing argument. “He turned around, shot Wayne Martin in the face and walked off, for 21 seconds, like nothing happened.”

The video shows Bazley calmly walking away as bystanders fled for safety. Twenty-one seconds later, Bazley was shot three times by an unknown gunman. Bazley stumbled away to his car.

He drove to his girlfriend’s home on Gentry Road, where he resided with members of her family. The Sheriff’s Office SWAT team arrested him there the following morning. The SWAT deputies lay siege to the house for an hour before Bazley surrendered.

Deputies encountered Bazley on the night before he killed Martin, in the same auto parts store parking lot. Bazley called 911 to report that someone had shot his BMW while he was seated in the car. However, on the night he killed Martin, he did not call 911, neither to report the shooting nor to seek medical assistance.

Because of his 2008 conviction of possession of marijuana and possession of cocaine, Bazley was prohibited from possessing firearms. On the night of the homicide, he took his girlfriend’s revolver without her knowledge and returned to the shooting scene from the previous night. “He was going to get revenge, some way, somehow,” Assistant DA Helmstetter told jurors.

This was the second time Bazley faced a Jefferson Parish jury for killing Martin. In June, Bazley, who represented himself without an attorney, was convicted of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, for which he has since been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

That first jury was unable to reach a verdict on the second-degree murder charge, leading to a mistrial and this month’s retrial.

On Monday, the second jury deliberated just over two hours in finding Bazley guilty of manslaughter. Judge R. Christopher Cox III of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Bazley on Nov. 13.

Assistant District Attorneys Matthew Whitworth, Sarah Helmstetter and Rachel Warren prosecuted the case.

Former teacher’s assistant Dawn Barriere convicted of possessing child pornography

A Jefferson Parish jury on Wednesday night (Sept. 24) found Dawn Barriere guilty as charged of possessing pornographic videos depicting children under age 13.

Barriere, 24, formerly of Metairie, was a preschool teacher’s assistant at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School Cottage program in Uptown New Orleans when she was arrested in October 2023.

The Louisiana Bureau of Investigation’s Cyber Crime Unit opened its investigation in August 2023 after receiving a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The report stated that pornographic videos involving prepubescent girls being sexually abuse were uploaded to Dropbox, a commercial file hosting service. Dropbox flagged the suspect videos in April 2023. Evidence showed that Barriere created the Dropbox account in 2015 and uploaded the illegal materials. Child pornography had been uploaded to that Dropbox account as long as six years prior to April 2023. She was arrested at her apartment in Metairie on Oct. 9, 2023.

During her interview with a state agent, Barriere admitted she had periodically viewed child pornography and was sexually aroused by it, but she felt “disgusted” afterward. She told the agent that she had viewed child pornography as recent as a month before her arrest.

However, at trial, Barriere denied the charge. She testified that as a teenager, she engaged in video chats with a man she knew as “Nate.” She described him as “an old, chunky white guy with very thin glasses and balding,” who began sending her stories about child sex abuse, leading her to sexually abuse a 2-year-old at the man’s request. She testified that “Nate” instructed her to set up the Dropbox account and she provided him with the password to it so he could share child pornography with her. She said she acted out of fear the man would find and harm her. She said she never sought out child porn and masturbated while viewing the illegal videos “only when I was instructed to.”

She never mentioned “Nate” to the state agent during the interview because the agent never asked, she testified.

Barriere had hundreds of photographs of children at the Uptown school, but none were sexual in nature. None of these images were related to the charge for which Barriere was prosecuted. The Cottage program is designed for children ages 1, 2 and 3. After her arrest, parents withdrew about 25 students from the school, according to trial testimony.

Jurors deliberated about 2 ½ hours before returning with their unanimous verdict. Judge E. Adrian Adams of the 24th Judicial District Court ordered a presentence investigation and set sentencing for Oct. 28.

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

Joshua Every pleads guilty to brutally murdering Taylor Friloux while robbing Kenner Raising Cane’s

A Jefferson Parish judge on Thursday (Sept. 18) sentenced Joshua Every to life in prison after he admitted to brutally stabbing Taylor Friloux to death at the Kenner fast food restaurant where she worked as a shift manager nine years ago.

In pleading guilty as charged to first-degree murder, Every, 32, of Laplace, averted a potential death sentence had he been convicted at his trial of killing Friloux, 21, on June 29, 2016.

In a negotiated agreement with the state, Every pleaded guilty as charged in exchange for the state withdrawing its intent to seek the death penalty. In doing so, Every agreed to be sentenced to a mandatory life sentence in prison at hard labor with no chance of probation, parole or suspension of sentence. His trial had been scheduled to begin on Oct. 14.

Every and his codefendants planned to rob the Raising Cane’s in the 3300 block of Williams Boulevard. As employees were discarding the garbage during closing time, Every and his cohort Gregory Donald entered the rear of the business.

Without provocation, Every stabbed Friloux at the rear entrance and then forced her at knifepoint inside the business and to the manager’s office. After forcing her to give him $1,000, she collapsed onto the floor, at which time he brutally and repeatedly stabbed her, causing injuries that ended her life hours later at a hospital intensive care unit.

“She was not yours to take, but you did it anyway,” Friloux’s mother told Every in victim-impact testimony, having carried the urn containing her daughter’s ashes with her to the witness stand. “I will never forgive you.”

She was one of six people to provide victim-impact testimony during the hourlong sentencing hearing. Friloux’s mother’s partner also expressed an unwillingness to forgive Every. “Enjoy your stay in your new gated community of Angola,” she told Every.

Said one of Friloux’s coworkers at Raising Cane’s and a victim of the armed robbery, “The person you took away was a good person who deserved to be here today.” Every had worked at the business previously and knew his victim. The coworker said Every killed her “over a grudge and anger you couldn’t let go.”

Friloux’s cousin was in the ICU when she died and recalled hearing the doctor announce “the words no family should have to hear: ‘Time of death, 8:41 a.m.’”

“You got to hear her last words. What did she say?” the cousin asked Every, who said nothing in return.

“You didn’t just murder her. You robbed the world of a bright, vibrant woman,” a family friend testified.

Every was charged in a separate indictment with two counts of armed robbery, conspiracy to commit armed robbery, false imprisonment while armed with a weapon, witness intimidation and obstruction of justice.

Judge Lee Faulkner of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced Every to 50 years for each of the two armed robbery counts, 25 years for the conspiracy to commit armed robbery, 10 years for false imprisonment, 20 years for witness intimidation and 20 years for obstruction of justice. Judge Falkner ran the sentences concurrently and concurrent with his life sentence.

Every’s codefendants already have pleaded guilty:

  • Mark Crocklen, 33, of Baton Rouge, pleaded guilty in 2018 to manslaughter, two counts of armed robbery, conspiracy to commit armed robbery, false imprisonment, witness intimidation and obstruction of justice. He received a received a 40-year prison sentence.
  • Gregory Donald, 27, of Kenner, pleaded guilty in 2019 to manslaughter, two counts of armed robbery, conspiracy to commit armed robbery, false imprisonment, witness intimidation and obstruction of justice. He received a received an 89-year prison sentence.
  • Ariana Runner, 31, of Laplace, pleaded guilty in 2018 to conspiracy to commit armed robbery and obstruction of justice. She awaits her sentencing. UPDATE: Runner was sentenced to five years in prison on Oct. 16, 2025.

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

Michael A. Harris sentenced to two life sentences for murdering couple

A Jefferson Parish judge on Wednesday (Sept. 3) sentenced Michael A. Harris to two back-to-back life sentences for his conviction of shooting a couple from the back seat of a pickup truck parked in a Marrero home’s driveway. 

Harris, 36, of Terrytown, was convicted by a jury on Aug. 1 of two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of David Sumera, 36, and Alexxis Eymard, 26. 

Sumera was driving a rented 4-door Ford Ranger that he had borrowed and was delivering heroin to someone in the 2600 block of Bay Adams Drive on the afternoon of Sept. 24, 2022. Eymard sat to his right in the front passenger’s seat. Behind her sat Harris, who was acquainted with the couple. 

Armed with a 9mm semiautomatic pistol and without provocation, Harris shot the Belle Chasse couple in the backs of their heads at about 1:45 p.m., minutes after they pulled into the driveway.  

“Their last moments on Earth were filled with the smell of gun smoke and the sound of gunfire,” Assistant District Attorney Matt Clauss told jurors in opening statements. 

For four hours, their bodies remained in the pickup, its engine running, until the woman who lived at the Bay Adams Drive residence found them and called 911. The woman, who slept through much of the day, did not hear the gunfire. She did notice the pickup in her driveway at one point during the day and assumed Sumera was in the neighborhood. 

Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office detectives canvased the neighborhood in search of residences with video surveillance systems. They found videos showing the pickup being driven into the driveway. 

Minutes later, Harris, concealing his identity with a cloth over his head, got out of the rear passenger’s side door, video shows. He opened the front passenger door, stayed there momentarily, closed it and then walked around to do the same to the driver’s side. 

Surveillance video also shows him walking away into the neighborhood carrying a black bag, similar to one that Sumera owned. Nearby, Harris is seen in surveillance video rummaging through that bag before making his escape.  

Harris walked on and discarded the cloth in the street. Upon seeing this video recording, detectives immediately recovered the cloth. It was a shirt. On it, Sheriff’s Office Crime Lab DNA analysts found genetic material consistent with Harris’s. 

The analysts also found DNA consistent with Harris’s on the rear passenger’s side door handle, where the shooter was seen stepping out of the pickup. 

Detectives learned that Sumera and Harris were acquainted. Days before the murders, a witness socialized with Eymard, Sumera and a man introduced to her as “Mike.” The witness then drove “Mike” to his home in the 800 block of Mystic Avenue in Terrytown – Harris’s home. 

Additionally, geolocation data obtained from the pickup truck’s infotainment system and from a cell phone that Harris used at the time suggested that Harris and Sumera were together in the hours leading up to the murder. Harris stopped using that phone shortly after he committed the murders.  

Armed with an arrest warrant for the murders, a U.S. Marshals fugitive task force located and arrested Harris in Memphis, Tenn., on Feb. 16, 2023. He was armed with a 9mm pistol and apparently was living on the streets. That pistol he had in Memphis was not the murder weapon, which has not been found. 

In addition to the two murders, the jury found Harris guilty of being a convicted felon in possession of the firearm used in the homicides. He was prohibited from possessing firearms because of his convictions of possession of heroin and distribution of heroin, both in Jefferson Parish. 

During the trial, Harris’s attorneys challenged the evidence linking him to the murders, saying there were no eyewitnesses and that Harris’s DNA could have been left on evidence at any time prior to the murders. The attorneys suggested that Sumera might have been targeted by someone other than Harris because of the assistance he had given to law enforcement previously. 

The jury deliberated almost three hours before reaching their verdicts on Aug. 1. 

In victim-impact testimony given during Wednesday’s sentencing hearing, Sumera’s younger sister and the mother of his child to the court that he was not perfect. But he didn’t deserve to be murdered by a man he considered a friend, they said. 

“David was my protector through a traumatic childhood,” his sister testified. “He made me feel safe. He made me feel loved. Now because of the choices made by the man sitting before you, that safety is gone.” 

The mother of his son said he “made a lot of mistakes in his life … but his life mattered.” 

“He was kind,” she said. “He was funny. He was talented. He was loved.” 

“You didn’t just take David’s life. You shattered ours,” she told Harris. 

After denying a defense motion for a new trial, Judge Raymond Steib of the 24th Judicial District Court on Wednesday sentenced Harris to life in prison without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence for each of the two murder counts. He ran the sentences consecutively. 

Judge Steib also sentenced Harris to 20 years for the conviction of being a felon in possession of a firearm. That sentence was run concurrent with the two life sentences. 

Assistant District Attorneys Matt Clauss and Theresa King prosecuted the case.  

 

Curtis Thomas III sentenced to life for Westwego-area murder

A Jefferson Parish judge on Thursday (Aug. 21) sentenced Curtis Thomas III to life in prison for his conviction of shooting two men in a Westwego-area home, killing one and injuring the other. 

Thomas, 33, of Bridge City, was convicted by a jury on July 16 of the second-degree murder of Charles McGehee, 50, and the attempted second-degree murder of a 28-year-old Westwego man. 

Thomas shot the men on the night of Feb. 13, 2022, inside a residence in the 600 block of Emile Avenue. Thomas, his father, the homeowner and the two victims were at the residence in part to watch the Super Bowl. 

The television and a single lightbulb that illuminated the kitchen and living room areas were powered by an extension cord. The electrical flow was briefly cut off, darkening the room. It was then that, without provocation, Thomas opened fire with a .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol. 

A bullet passed through McGehee’s right shoulder and entered his torso, killing him. The other victim was shot in the arm and fled on foot. Thomas’s father later drove that victim to a hospital. 

After shooting the men, Thomas walked out of the house. He was no more than 140 feet away when a Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office deputy responding to the gunshots approached him. Thomas was still carrying the pistol. 

“I know you must be thinking: There must be more to this. There must be something more that we’re missing,” Assistant District Attorney Molly Love told jurors in closing argument on July 16. “You’re thinking this because it is so hard to believe that someone is capable of committing such a terrible and violent act.  

“But no. There’s nothing more to it,” ADA Love said in urging jurors to find Thomas guilty as charged. “It is just that simple. He was caught walking away from the murder scene with the murder weapon and Charles McGehee’s blood on his socks.” 

The surviving gunshot victim later told detectives that Thomas was the shooter. The other witnesses, Thomas’ father and the homeowner died in 2023. 

At trial, Thomas’s attorneys argued that the Sheriff’s Office did not sufficiently investigate the case and asserted that the fact that Thomas had the murder weapon when he was arrested did not mean he was the shooter.  

The jury deliberated almost four hours in convicting Thomas as charged of the three offenses. 

During Thursday’s sentencing hearing, members of McGehee’s family provided victim-impact testimony, telling Thomas of the kind of man McGehee was: a loving, gentle giant. McGehee taught all the children how to ride bikes, they said. When his brother-in-law was dying, McGehee drove to his home in Jacksonville, Fla., packed his apartment and moved him back to Louisiana, where he wanted to die. 

“There was absolutely no reason for you to shoot that gun,” McGehee’s sister told Thomas. “You destroyed a whole family. Charles didn’t deserve it.” 

One of McGehee’s daughters noted their last conversation, hours before he died. “’I love you. See you tomorrow,’” he told her. “There was no tomorrow for him,” she said.  

Thomas was barred from possessing firearms because of his July 15, 2011 conviction of attempted second-degree murder in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court. He received a 10-year prison sentence for that crime, in which he shot a man as he entered a store at North Dorgenois and O’Reilly streets.  

Life in prison without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence is the mandatory punishment for second-degree murder under Louisiana law. Judge Stephen Enright of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced Thomas to 50 years for attempted second-degree murder and 20 years for Thomas’s conviction of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He ran the sentences concurrently. 

Assistant District Attorneys Molly Love and Taylor Somerville prosecuted the case. 

 

Irielle Love sentenced to life plus 40 years for murdering 84-year-old woman

A Jefferson Parish judge on Monday (June 30) sentenced Irielle Love to life plus 40 years in prison for her conviction of stabbing a diminutive 84-year-old woman to death in her Metairie apartment. 

Love, 25, of Kenner, is guilty as charged of the second-degree murder of Dory Sierra, a jury decided on June 18 during about 33 minutes of deliberations. Love also was convicted of obstruction of justice for taking Ms. Sierra’s cell phone after murdering her. 

Life in prison without probation, parole or suspension of sentence is mandatory under Louisiana law for second-degree murder. Judge Frank Brindisi of the 24th Judicial District Court also sentenced Love to the maximum 40 years in prison for obstruction of justice. He ran the sentences consecutively. 

“You acted like a monster that day,” Judge Brindisi told Love in announcing the sentences. “You took her life and now we’re stuck with you. It’s not very fair to us.” 

On the morning of Dec. 1, 2020, Ms. Sierra, who stood at 4’8” and weighed 134 pounds, was stabbed 10 times in the bathroom of her apartment in the 3300 block of Edenborn Avenue. She lived in the complex for more than two decades. Her daughter, who resided with Ms. Sierra, found her mother’s body in the bathtub when she returned home from work that afternoon. 

“All evidence points to her. And it does. There is no doubt in this case that the person that is sitting right here in this chair murdered Dory Sierra,” Assistant District Attorney Taylor Somerville told jurors in closing argument on June 18, pointing at Love seated at the defense table beside her attorney. 

Love was at the apartment complex with her mother and grandmother, who was seeking a new apartment because she was being evicted from her rental in Kenner. They went to the complex to look at a rental unit and to submit a lease application. 

When Love’s mother and grandmother temporarily left the complex to get a money order for the deposit, Love meandered around and wandered into Ms. Sierra’s apartment. Evidence shows that Love used pepper spray on Ms. Sierra during the attack. 

It was “a crime of opportunity,” Assistant District Attorney Eric Cusimano told jurors. 

After using paper and cloth towels to clean the blood from her own body, Love walked away with Ms. Sierra’s cell phone and the $280 that she set aside to pay her bills.  

Love left behind the piece of evidence that led the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office to arrest her: A single fingerprint on the interior of the apartment door. 

Armed with a search warrant, detectives went to the Martinique Street apartment that Love shared with her grandmother. They found eviction papers in Love’s grandmother’s name and an order to appear before a justice of the peace in Kenner for an eviction hearing at 11:30 a.m., that day. 

The detectives learned that Love, her mother and grandmother arrived at the Edenborn Avenue apartment complex at about 9:50 a.m. Love’s whereabouts were unknown for about 30 minutes. By the time her mother and grandmother returned with the money order, Love had left the complex. 

Soon after, Love called them, asking them to pick her up at Barnett Street and West Esplanade Avenue. They arrived at the eviction hearing late. That afternoon, Love’s grandmother drove her to a hospital in New Orleans, where Love committed herself to the psychiatric ward. Detectives arrested her there three days later. 

Investigators, meanwhile, found Ms. Sierra’s cell phone at the bottom of a trash can outside an apartment building in the 4400 block of Kent Drive, just off West Esplanade and near where Love wanted her mother and grandmother to pick her up. 

Using geolocation technology, detectives determined that Love’s cell phone and Ms. Sierra’s cell phone were together as Love walked away from the murder scene. The cell phones were tracked together north on Edenborn to West Esplanade, and then west toward Kenner. Ms. Sierra’s cell phone ceased movement at Kent Drive, where Love left it in the garbage can, while Love’s cell phone continued on to the justice of the peace court in Kenner. Love, her mother and grandmother attended the late-morning eviction hearing. 

 “That is a damning piece of evidence,” Assistant DA Cusimano said. 

Love denied killing Ms. Sierra. At trial, her attorney conceded that she entered Ms. Sierra’s apartment and stole the cell phone and $280. But there was no evidence proving that Love killed the woman, he argued. 

During Monday’s sentencing hearing, Judge Brindisi heard victim-impact testimony from Ms. Sierra’s former daughter-in-law and a member of the family for whom Ms. Sierra had been employed as a housekeeper and nanny. 

Ms. Sierra’s former daughter-in-law noted how she remained active in her later years, traveled and attended mass weekly. Ms. Sierra, who stood “barely over four feet,” helped raise her autistic son. Because of his affliction, he does not know why she is no longer with him. 

“All he knows is that he lost her,” Ms. Sierra’s former daughter-in-law testified. “He is not attached to very many people because of his autism, except for his grandmother.” 

As a nanny, Ms. Sierra helped raise three children who today are “young professionals” working in careers out of state, a member of that family told the court. She called Ms. Sierra “a beloved member of our family.” 

“She was part of us,” she testified. “We just cannot fathom how anyone can do this to anyone, especially our Nana.” 

In addition to the prison sentences, Judge Brindisi ordered Love to pay a $100,000 fine. “Ms. Love this was a senseless killing,” the judge told her. “There was no reason to do it. You took a good person from us.” 

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

Saleh ‘Sam’ Omar sentenced to maximum 40 years for Terrytown duct tape killing

A Jefferson Parish judge on Wednesday (June 25) sentenced Saleh “Sam” Omar to 40 years in prison for his conviction of killing a man by tightly wrapping his face and torso with duct tape, leaving him unable to free himself to breathe.

A jury on April 24 found Omar, 47, guilty of manslaughter in the death of Mohamed “Mo” Mezlini, 29. Omar was indicted with second-degree murder, but the jury found him guilty of the lesser offense.

In sentencing Omar to the maximum punishment for manslaughter, Judge Lee Faulkner of the 24th Judicial District Court noted Wednesday that Omar’s use of duct tape to kill Mezlini was “particularly heinous.”

“I believe the defendant got a windfall from the jury,” Judge Faulkner noted, when it found Omar guilty of the lesser offense. Second-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence.

Click here to read about the trial.

Omar owned a cell phone repair business in a strip mall on Terry Parkway. He previously employed Mezlini. The men had unspecified animosity that culminated in a vacant suite in that strip mall on Sept. 8, 2018.

With the help of his half-brother Yazan Omar, then aged 17, Omar lured Mezlini to that vacant suite. A fight ensued and ended with Omar binding Mezlini with duct tape. He left Mezlini in the locked suite and fled from the strip mall.

Seventeen minutes after Omar fled, Yazan Omar and two of Omar’s employees broke into the vacant suite and found Mezlini bound in duct tape. They removed the tape, attempted chest compressions and called 911. Mezlini died the following day. The Jefferson Parish Coroner’s Office said Mezlini died from asphyxia due to strangulation and smothering. His hyoid bone, in his throat, was also broken, indicating strangulation.

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

In December 2021, Yazan Omar, now 24, pleaded guilty to false imprisonment with a dangerous weapon and obstruction of justice in exchange for a 15-year prison sentence.

During Wednesday’s sentencing hearing, Omar’s attorney provided the testimony of character witnesses and arguments in seeking leniency.

On the state’s side, more than two-dozen people provided victim-impact statements to the court seeking justice for Mezlini and the maximum punishment for Omar.

“He had his whole life ahead of him,” Mezlini’s widow testified. She will never forgive Omar, she told the court. She noted that the coldness of how he used duct tape to kill her husband “demonstrates a level of violence and depravity beyond comprehension.”

Mezlini’s mother called him “the epitome of good character and ethics.” His father added, “My son did nothing to deserve what happened to him.”

Assistant District Attorneys Kristen Landrieu and Brendan Bowen prosecuted the case. They were assisted by Assistant District Attorneys Mallory Grefer and Darren Allemand.

Sean Barrette sentenced to three life sentences plus 180 years in prison

A Jefferson Parish judge on Wednesday (June 18) sentenced Sean Barrette to three back-to-back life sentences plus another 180 years in prison for his conviction of targeting strangers in four unrelating shootings on East Jefferson roadways in June 2019, killing three men. 

Barrette, 28, of Metairie, was convicted Friday night of eight charges in connection with four separate shootings in East Jefferson. 

Click here to read about the trial. 

Judge Jacqueline Maloney of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced Barrette on the sixth anniversary of his killing the last two of his victims and on his arrest by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office. 

  • Count 1, the first-degree murder of Manuel Caronia, 45, of Metairie, who was driving a 2008 Chevrolet Escalade east in the 8600 block of West Metairie Avenue on June 18, 2019, when Barrette shot him. Caronia was struck by two bullets and died at the scene. Barrette received a life sentence for killing Caronia, without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence. 
  • Count 2, the first-degree murder of Nicky Robeau, 57, of Harahan, who was Caronia’s passenger. He also was shot twice and died at the scene. Barrette received a life sentence for killing Robeau, without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence. 
  • Count 3, the second-degree murder of Isia Francisco Cadalzo-Sevilla, 22, of Metairie, who was driving a 2014 Chevrolet Cruze east on West Metairie Avenue near Henry Landry Drive on June 17, 2019. Cadalzo-Sevilla was wounded and drove off the roadway and into a tree. Barrette stopped, got out of his vehicle and continued shooting Cadalzo-Sevilla. Barrette received a life sentence for killing Cadalzo-Sevilla, without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence. 
  • Count 4, the attempted first-degree murder of a 37-year-old Harvey man who was driving his 1998 Mercury Grand Marquis in Kenner on June 5, 2019, when Barrette shot at him, striking his car with eight bullets. He escaped unharmed. Barrette received a 50-year prison sentence for this charge. 
  • Count 5, the attempted first-degree murder of a 34-year-old Mississippi woman, who was a passenger in the Harvey man’s Grand Marquis. She escaped unharmed. Barrette received a 50-year sentence for this charge. 
  • Count 6, the attempted second-degree murder of a 24-year-old Algiers woman who on June 17, 2019, was returning home in her 2018 Toyota Camry from having dinner with friends at a Metairie restaurant when Barrette shot at her on Interstate 10 near the Orleans Parish line. Barrette received a 50-year sentence for this charge. 
  • Count 7, aggravated criminal damage to the Harvey man’s 1998 Mercury Grand Marquis. Barrette received a 15-year sentence for this charge. Judge Maloney ordered Barrette to pay a $10,000 fine. 
  • Count 8, aggravated criminal damage to the Algiers woman’s 2018 Toyota Camry. Barrette received a 15-year sentence for this charge. Judge Maloney ordered Barrette to pay a $10,000 fine. 

Life in prison is mandatory in Louisiana for first-degree and second-degree murder. Judge Maloney also gave Barrette the maximum punishment for the three attempted murder charges and criminal damage charges. She ordered that all sentences be served consecutively. 

After denying a defense motion for a new trial, Judge Maloney heard impact testimony from members of the family of the three slain men. 

Cadalzo-Sevilla’s mother and brother said he emigrated from Honduras at a young age, “full of dreams and aspiration” to become a paramedic in the United States. Neither attended the trial and sentencing, they said, because they did not want to “see Barrette’s face.” 

Robeau’s three daughters described him as a dedicated father, husband and grandfather to seven. “Sean, you cowardly hunted people down like they were prey,” one of them testified. 

Two of Caronia’s sisters described their youngest sibling as having a “sweet soul,” a man who at age 17 married a woman who had seven children and proceeded to have six children of his own. “When you took my brother, you took my family,” one of his sisters testified. 

Assistant District Attorneys Zach Grate and Kristen Landrieu prosecuted the case. 

Former Grand Isle councilman Elgene Gary Sr. gets 45-year sentence for molesting girls

A Jefferson Parish judge on Monday (June 16) sentenced former Grand Isle town councilman Elgene Gary Sr. to 45 years in prison for his conviction of molesting two juvenile girls on the barrier island. He abused one of the victims decades ago, when she was a child.

Gary, 81, who also was a Grand Isle policeman and member of the port commission, was convicted by a jury on May 29 of three counts of sexual battery. Two of the counts involve the same victim, one for before her 13th birthday and one after.

Click here to read about the trial.

Louisiana State Police opened the investigation in October 2021, after one of the victims, then 16, reported that Gary began molesting her beginning when she was 7 years old.

The investigation led a 40-year-old woman to come forward in January 2022, saying Gary abused her, too, on one occasion when she was between 7 and 10 years old. Additionally, the jurors who convicted Gary at trial heard testimony from another adult woman who said he abused her, too, in Michigan when she was a child.

The victim whose complaint led to Gary’s conviction told the court in victim-impact testimony on Monday that, “I’ve lived not even 20 years, and so much of them have been filled with a lot of difficulties.”

“It’s still hard to look into the mirror, because if I look too long, I see someone who was very young and didn’t know what was happening,” she said of being sexually abused as a child. “I’m so sorry for her and sorry for everyone else who has ever met him. It’s going to take a long time to not hate myself for not knowing sooner. It wasn’t my fault, I know that.”

She asked that Gary received the maximum punishment.

Judge Ellen Shirer Kovach of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced Gary to 25 years for sexual battery of a juvenile under age 13 and 10 years for each of the two sexual battery charges. She ran the sentences consecutively, for a total of 45 years.

To the victim who provided impact testimony Monday, Judge Kovach said she’s “an extremely brave woman” who “put an end to what other women have experienced.”

The judge acknowledged that the victim asked for the maximum sentence. “Given that he is (81) years old and has numerous health issues, I believe this is a life sentence,” Judge Kovach told her.

Gary also must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. He also is barred from having any contact with his victims for 100 years.

Assistant District Attorneys Erich Cathey and Brooke Harris prosecuted the case.

Sean Barrette convicted in East Jefferson shooting spree that left 3 dead

A Jefferson Parish jury deliberated for 1 ½ hours on Friday night (June 13) in finding Sean Barrette guilty of shooting at the occupants of four vehicles traveling on East Jefferson roadways during a 2-week period in June 2019, killing three men.

Barrette, 28, of Metairie, is guilty as charged of two counts of first-degree murder, one count of second-degree murder, two counts of attempted first-degree murder, one count of attempted second-degree murder and two counts of aggravated criminal damage to property.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges, as well as not guilty by reason of insanity. In addition to finding him guilty, jurors rejected his attorneys’ argument that a mental illness left him unable to distinguish right from wrong during his crime spree.

“He wanted to be remembered for being a serial killer,” Assistant District Attorney Zach Grate told jurors in closing argument Friday evening. “He doesn’t think he’s going to be convicted for it.”

He urged jurors to never mention Barrette’s name again after leaving the courtroom. Notoriety, Assistant DA Grate said, “is the only thing he’s cared about from the start.”

Driving his family’s tan 2005 Nissan Pathfinder sports-utility vehicle, Barrette stalked motorists and all of his victims were strangers. He fired numerous bullets at them using the Smith & Wesson .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol that he purchased from a Metairie sporting goods store less than one month before he used it to shoot at motorists.

It was the ballistics evidence that he left behind, from the bullets recovered at autopsy, to those found in the victims’ vehicles, to the cartridge casings left at crime scenes, that helped investigators identify Barrette as the gunman. He also dropped his cell phone at one of the murder scenes.

Aided by its SWAT team, Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office detectives arrested Barrette at his home on June 18, 2019, just hours after he killed two men. As SWAT deputies converged on his home, Barrette hid the .40-caliber pistol and a bullet magazine in a clothes hamper in his bedroom. In his vehicle, the detectives found two .40-caliber cartridge casings.

“Every single one of these incidents link up, because the same exact gun was fired at every one of these scenes,” Assistant District Attorney Kristen Landrieu told jurors in opening statements Wednesday. “That gun belongs to Sean Barrette.”

Here’s the timeline of Barrette’s crime spree:

June 5, 2019, 11:19 p.m.

A 37-year-old Harvey man and a 34-year-old Mississippi woman were traveling on Airline Drive near Elm Street in his 1998 Mercury Grand Marquis when they noticed they were being followed by the driver of a light color SUV.

The man drove onto westbound Interstate 10 and then exited at Loyola Drive in Kenner. The SUV driver continued to follow them. The gunman began shooting at them in the 3100 block of Loyola, possibly wearing a mask. “Somebody was trying to kill us,” the woman testified, her voice wavering above a cry.

Several nearby residents called 911 to report hearing gunfire. The driver made a U-turn and raced back to I-10 west to escape. As the man drove north on Interstate 55, the woman called 911, reporting that someone had been shooting at them in Kenner and that their tires were blown out by bullets.

Fearing the shooter was still following him, the man exited I-55 at Manchac and hid underneath the elevated interstate. Louisiana State Police responded and notified the Kenner Police Department. His car had been struck by eight bullets, including the rear window and bumper. The victims returned to Kenner, to where the car was towed. Officers found .40-caliber cartridge casings near the shooting scene the following day.

The Sheriff’s Office Crime Lab entered ballistics data from the cartridge casings into the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive’s National Integrated Ballistics Information Network. NIBIN, as the network is known, helps detectives determine whether firearms are used in multiple crimes.

For shooting at the couple, Barrette was convicted of two counts of attempted first-degree murder and one count of aggravated criminal damage to property.

June 17, 8:15 p.m.

A 24-year-old Algiers woman who had dined with friends at a Veterans Memorial Boulevard restaurant in Metairie was returning home. She merged onto I-10 from Causeway Boulevard and was driving eastbound near the Orleans Parish line when she heard popping on her car. Thinking it was hail from the storm she was driving through, she called her father on her cell phone and continued to the West Bank.

Once at home, she and her father inspected the car and determined the rear window was shot, and the car’s rear end had bullet holes. She returned to Metairie and filed a complaint at the Sheriff’s Office’s 1st District station.

Her father later took the car to a body shop for repairs from the gunfire. A service technician found that bullets not only pierced the car’s body, but they had also lodged in the spare tire in the trunk.

The Sheriff’s Office gathered the ballistics material from the car. The bullets were linked to the Kenner shooting.

For shooting at the Algiers woman, Barrette was convicted of attempted second-degree murder and aggravated criminal damage to property.

June 17, 2019, 11:12 p.m.

Isia Franciso Cadalzo-Sevilla, 22, of Metairie, was driving a 2014 Chevrolet Cruze east on West Metairie Avenue when Barrette shot at him from his SUV. The car Cadalzo-Sevilla was driving left the roadway and struck a tree at Henry Landry Drive.

His face hidden behind a mask, Barrette stopped in the roadway, got out of his SUV, reloaded his pistol and shot Cadalzo-Sevilla – and in the process, he dropped his cell phone. Caldalzo-Sevilla suffered 12 gunshot wounds and later died at a hospital.

An expert in crime scene reconstruction testified that Barrette’s first gunshots, fired from within his SUV, likely led Cadalzo-Sevilla to drive off the roadway and into the tree.

While at the homicide scene, detectives heard music rising from the West Metairie drainage canal bank. It was the cell phone. The Sheriff’s Office’s Digital Forensic Unit later determined that the mobile device belonged to Barrette.

The Digital Forensic Unit investigators also discovered that in the early morning of June 17, Barrette made an entry in his cell phone memo app: “June 17-grimest day of 2019.”

The ballistics data gathered by the Sheriff’s Office Crime Lab was entered in the NIBIN database, with the results linking Barrette’s pistol to this shooting.

For killing Caldalzo-Sevilla, Barrette was convicted of second-degree murder.

June 18, 2019, 4:16 p.m.

Manuel Caronia, 45, of Metairie, and Nicky Robeau, 57, of Harahan, were traveling in a 2008 Chevrolet Escalade east in the 8600 block of West Metairie Avenue when Barrette. drove alongside them. Caronia was driving.

Barrette extended his pistol out of his passenger’s window and began shooting. A witness frantically called 911, reporting that the SUV driver was shooting at another vehicle.

Deputies found the Escalade stopped in the eastbound lanes, its driver’s side riddled with bullet holes. Both Caronia and Robeau were shot twice and died at the scene.

Ballistics data the Sheriff’s Office Crime Lab obtained from a bullet removed from Caronia’s body was entered in the NIBIN database. That bullet was fired by Barrette’s .40-caliber pistol, investigators determined.

For killing Caronia and Robeau, Barrette was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder.

Insanity Defense

At trial, Barrette’s attorneys argued that he has been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and twice involuntarily committed for mental illness before his crime spree. The attorneys suggested that his behavioral changes, which his family noticed later in his life, could be rooted in the blows to his head he experienced playing football in high school and at the handful of colleges he attended.

To find Barrette not guilty by reason of insanity, the jury first had to find that he has a mental disease or defect, and second, that the disease or defect hindered his ability to determine right from wrong.

In rebuttal, the prosecution provided the testimony of Dr. Gina Manguno-Mire, a forensic psychologist. She found that Barrette has mental illness, but not a qualifying mental disease or defect as required under state law.

“It was more along the lines of a serious personality disorder and a substance abuse disorder,” Dr. Manguno-Mire testified Friday. “Neither of those things I diagnosed Mr. Barrette with would interfere with his ability to determine that what he was doing was wrong.”

As part of her evaluation, Dr. Manguno-Mire reviewed numerous records related to his mental health. These include “progress notes” written by staffers who interacted with Barrette during his pre-trial commitment at the Eastern Louisiana Mental Health System hospital in East Feliciana Parish. Jurors were shown the notes.

While there, Barrette indicated he was aware that what he did was wrong but would game the criminal justice system so he could be released. On one occasion, a staffer noted a discussion with Barrette during which he said he would intentionally fail a mental evaluation test “so I can get NGBRI” (not guilty by reason of insanity). He said he would be sent to a group home “and then home.”

“I know that killing those people was wrong but I’m to [sic] young to go to prison. I wouldn’t make it,” the hospital staffer quoted Barrette as saying.

Dr. Manguno-Mire discounted the two involuntary commitments in 2018 and 2019 and highlighted that most of the information contained in the records from those hospital stays were from statements made by Barrette’s family members and not from symptoms observed by medical professionals.

“Not one, and I mean one, psychotic symptom was ever noted by any professional observing Barrette. Not a lone, solitary one,” Assistant DA Grate told jurors.

To help her reach her conclusions that Barrette knew right from wrong, Dr. Manguno-Mire looked at evidence of his behavior at the time of his crime spree.

During the period of the shootings, his family noted nothing was amiss. He fled the scenes of the crimes. After the Kenner shooting, he used back streets to return to his home instead of using I-10 to avoid being seen. He kept his crimes quiet, returning to his home afterward as though nothing had happened. On the day he killed the two men, he chatted with his sister about his new hair style.

On the night of his arrest, Barrette spent almost two hours in an interview room at the Sheriff’s Office. He was alone for most of that time in that room, which was equipped with video cameras. He exhibited no signs of psychosis, Dr. Manguno-Mire noted after watching the video recording.

“He was calm,” Dr. Manguno-Mire testified. “He was seated throughout the entire time he was in the room. He was well-dressed. He was well-groomed. … During that time, he engaged in no bizarre behavior.”

The jury that was seated on Wednesday returned with its verdicts at 9:30 p.m.

Judge Jacqueline Maloney of the 24th Judicial District Court set sentencing for Wednesday (June 18).

Assistant District Attorneys Zach Grate and Kristen Landrieu prosecuted the case.