Author: Paul Purpura

Damon Bryant gets 515 years, Destin Smith gets 227 years in armed robbery spree and homicide

A Jefferson Parish judge on Tuesday (Feb. 10) sentenced a pair of West Bank half-bothers to hundreds of years in prison for their convictions for committing a string of armed robberies, and a shooting that left a Terrytown man dead.

Destin Smith, 26, of Algiers, and Damon Bryant, 28, of Avondale, were convicted by a jury on Jan. 31 of numerous charges in connection with the 2017 crime spree.

Judge Donnie Rowan of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced Smith to 227 years in prison and Bryant to 515 years in prison.

“I have to tell you that what you two did in this parish and in other parishes, I mean, we might as well go back in time and call you Bonnie and Clyde, we might as well call you Dillinger, we might as well call you a whole bunch of names, because you have no regard for human life. You terrorized them. That’s what you did. You terrorized these people, you with a shotgun, you with a handgun.”

Smith was convicted of manslaughter in the death of James Thomas Jr., 36. A De Le Salle High School graduate and father of a young son who drove a delivery truck for UPS, Thomas was shot outside his Terrytown apartment when Smith tried to carjack him.

“He lived with integrity and purpose,” Thomas’ mother said Tuesday in victim-impact testimony during the sentencing hearing. “And he was taken from me. … We had just exchanged messages while I was on a cruise. His last words to me were, ‘When are you coming home?’ I didn’t know that would be our final conversation.”

Smith additionally was convicted of conspiracy to commit armed robbery, attempted armed robbery and obstruction of justice. The jury acquitted Smith of five counts of armed robbery.

Smith’s later crimes in part were carried out to raise money to post bail for his half-brother and co-defendant during the 5-day-long the trial, Damon Bryant.

Bryant, 28, of Avondale, was convicted of carjacking and five counts of armed robbery.

A look at the crime spree shows:

  • At about 1:10 a.m., on July 11, 2017, a 24-year-old woman was seated in her boyfriend’s 2011 Mercury Sable in the 900 block of East Monterey Court in Terrytown. As she scrolled through Facebook on her mobile device, two men physically removed her from the car and drove away in it. Several hours later, her boyfriend found his car at an apartment complex in the 2300 block of Park Place Drive – where a relative of Bryant and Smith lived and where Thomas was later shot and killed. Bryant’s DNA was recovered from the steering wheel, leading to his arrest three weeks later. He was convicted of carjacking as a result. Judge Rowan on Tuesday sentenced Bryant to 20 years in prison to be served at hard labor.
  • Late on the morning of July 20, 2017, an employee of a breakfast restaurant in the 500 block of Behrman Highway in Terrytown was cleaning behind the business when he noticed two suspicious men approaching. As the employee attempted to use his cell phone to call the manager inside, the suspects forced him at gunpoint to knock on the rear door. When the manager opened it, the suspects forced their way inside, robbed a 32-year-old woman and a 29-year-old woman and got away with more than $2,600. At trial, jurors acquitted Smith of two counts of armed robbery. They convicted Bryant of two counts of armed robbery. Bryant was sentenced Tuesday to 99 years in prison for each count, for a total of 198 years in prison to be served at hard labor.
  • On the night of July 27, 2017, a 27-year-old woman was getting out of her 2013 Nissan Versa at her home in the 2900 block of North Monterey Court in Terrytown when two suspects approached her intent on robbing her. She dropped her purse and car keys, and the suspects fled with them in her car. Jurors acquitted Smith of armed robbery and convicted Bryant of the charge. Bryant was sentenced to 99 years in prison for robbing this woman, to be served at hard labor.
  • Bryant immediately drove the stolen Versa across the Huey P. Long Bridge to a restaurant where he once worked in the 2900 block of South Clearview Parkway in Elmwood. The stolen car was picked up by the license place recognition system, according to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office. They hopped a fence in the rear of the restaurant and at gunpoint forced two employees – a 42-year-old man and a 43-year-old man – into the office. They fled with more than $2,200 in cash. Bryant cut his right hand when hopping the fence and left blood droplets inside the business, including on the jacket worn by one of the victims – and into the stolen car when fleeing. Smith was charged with being Bryant’s accomplice, but jurors acquitted him. was convicted of two counts of armed robbery. On Tuesday, Bryant was sentenced to 99 years for each count, for a total of 198 years, to be served at hard labor.

A week after robbing the Elmwood restaurant, Bryant was arrested after he shot a man in Boutte, in St. Charles Parish, when attempting to rob him. Bryant spotted that man withdrawing a large amount of cash at a Jefferson Parish bank and then followed him to St. Charles Parish to attempt to rob him. He subsequently was linked to the Jefferson Parish crimes in part based on his DNA being recovered in the stolen Mercury Sable, the stolen Versa and inside the Elmwood restaurant.

After Bryant’s arrest, Smith continued the crime spree in Jefferson and Orleans parishes, in part to raise cash for Bryant’s bail and criminal defense. Smith carried out some of these crimes with his sister’s then-boyfriend, Devante J. Mays, 27, of New Orleans. Mays, who was charged separately, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit armed robbery and two counts of attempted armed robbery in August 2019 in exchange for a 10-year prison sentence.

A look at Smith’s ongoing crime spree shows:

  • On the morning of Aug. 12, 2017, James Thomas Jr. walked to his BMW parked near his apartment in the 2300 block of Park Place Drive. Standing next to his car, he encountered Smith, who was armed with a .20-gauge shotgun. During the carjacking attempt, Smith shot Thomas once in the left thigh. Smith fled to a relative’s apartment in the complex. Thomas died a short while later at a New Orleans hospital. “James was a big, gentle Teddy bear. He would give you the shirt off his back,” Thomas’ fiancée said in victim-impact testimony on Wednesday. Smith was charged with second-degree murder, but jurors convicted him of the lesser homicide charge of manslaughter. Smith was sentenced Tuesday to 40 years in prison.
  • Hours later, on the night of Aug. 12, 2017, two employees were at a discount store in the 7400 block of the Westbank Expressway – a 39-year-old woman and a 21-year-old woman – when two gunmen approached the front door. The business had been closed for the day, so the doors were locked. The gunmen were unable to get inside. Smith was convicted of two counts of attempted armed robbery and was sentenced Tuesday to 49 years in prison for each count, for a total of 98 years in prison. Mays separately pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted armed robbery.
  • On Aug. 12 and Aug. 13, 2017, a man in New Orleans East, a discount store in the Lower 9th Ward, a woman and her cab driver in Algiers and two employees and a customer at a breakfast restaurant in Algiers were robbed. Jurors in the Jefferson Parish trial heard testimony about the crimes that were committed in Orleans Parish, which formed the basis for the conspiracy to commit armed robbery charge in the Jefferson Parish case. In the New Orleans East robbery, the victim reported having his 2008 Mazda CX9 stolen. That vehicle was later recovered near Smith’s residence on Bacchus Street in Algiers. In it, police recovered a spent .20-gauge shotgun shell that was ballistically matched to the shotgun used to kill James Thomas Jr., in Terrytown. These crimes are the basis for Smith’s being convicted of conspiracy to commit armed robbery. He was sentenced Tuesday to 49 years in prison. Mays previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit armed robbery. In the Orleans Parish cases, Smith and Mays also pleaded guilty in 2019 to committing nine counts of armed robbery and one count of aggravated battery in Criminal District Court. Smith received a 12-year sentence and Mays was sentenced to 15 years by a New Orleans judge.
  • Smith also was convicted of obstruction of justice for getting rid of the .20-gauge shotgun he used to kill Thomas. For this, he was sentenced Tuesday to 40 years in prison.

New Orleans Police Department detectives who were investigating the spate of armed robberies arrested Smith and Mays in the Bacchus Street residence in Algiers on Aug. 14, 2017. Victims’ property from several of the robberies was recovered there, linking them to the crimes.

Assistant District Attorneys Taylor Somerville and Tommy Block prosecuted the case.

 

 

 

Lucien Bazley, convicted in Marrero manslaughter, sentenced to 60 years in prison

A Jefferson Parish judge on Thursday (Feb. 5) sentenced Lucien Bazley to 60 years in prison in finding that the Marrero man is a habitual offender. 

In his most recent felony conviction, Bazley, 50, was convicted by a jury in October of manslaughter in the Sept. 25, 2022, shooting of Wayne Martin. 

Martin was celebrating his 30th birthday at an Ames Boulevard lounge on the night he died. He was walking behind Bazley in an auto parts store parking lot across the street from the lounge when Bazley turned and shot him once in the right eye. Martin collapsed and died at the scene. 

Click here to read about the trial. 

Bazley, who asserted self-defense, had been charged with second-degree murder and of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm in connection with Martin’s death. At the time he killed Martin, Bazley was on parole for a 2008 conviction of possession of cocaine. As such, he was legally barred from possessing firearms. 

During his first trial in June 2025, a jury was unable to reach a verdict on the murder charge, leading to a mistrial on that count. However, jurors found him guilty of the illegal possession of a firearm, for which he later was sentenced to 20 years in prison. 

He was retried on the murder charge in October. That second jury found him guilty of the lesser offense of manslaughter. 

Judge R. Christopher Cox III of the 24th Judicial District Court on Dec. 8, 2025 sentenced Bazley to the maximum 40 years in prison for manslaughter. On Thursday, Judge Cox vacated that sentence and resentenced Bazley to 60 years in prison in finding that the convict is a career criminal. Bazley’s prior felony convictions were for narcotics, in 2004 and 2008.  

Judge Cox ran the 60-year sentence concurrent with the 20 years Bazley received last year for the illegal possession of a firearm conviction. 

Former Assistant District Attorney Matthew Whitworth as well as Assistant District Attorneys Sarah Helmstetter and Rachel Warren prosecuted the case. 

Convicted of raping child, Mark Albarado Jr. sentenced to life in prison

A Jefferson Parish judge on Wednesday (Feb. 4) sentenced Mark Albarado Jr. to life in prison for his conviction of raping a juvenile.

Albarado, 50, of Marrero, was convicted by a jury on Jan. 14 of first-degree rape of a juvenile under age 13 and sexual battery of a juvenile under age 13.

“Mark, you will never be able to harm another child again,” the victim’s mother told Albarado in victim-impact testimony Wednesday.

At age 11, the victim initially disclosed the abuse to two step-siblings in March 2022, after one of the step-siblings watched a video about abuse. The victim disclosed that the abuse by Albarado occurred during the previous six years.

The victim’s mother learned of it the following day and notified the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office. During the investigation, DNA tied to Albarado’s lineage was found on a pair of the victim’s undergarment.

The victim said the first instance of abuse occurred at a campground in Tangipahoa Parish, and the remaining incidents happened at a Marrero residence. Albarado denied abusing the child.

For the first-degree rape, Judge Lee Faulkner of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced Albarado to a mandatory life in prison without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence. For sexual battery, Judge Faulkner sentenced Albarado to 25 years in prison. The judge ran the sentences concurrently.

Assistant District Attorneys Theresa King and Erich Cathey prosecuted the case.

NOTE: This report was updated on Feb. 11, 2026, to specify that the defendant is Mark Albarado Jr.

 

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.