Author: Paul Purpura

Bunnak ‘Hannah’ Landon gets life plus 80 years for murdering 6-year-old Bella Fontenelle

A Jefferson Parish judge on Tuesday (May 6) sentenced Bunnak “Hannah” Landon to life In prison plus 80 years for her conviction of murdering Bella Fontenelle, the 6-year-old Harahan child who was beaten and strangled before her body was placed in a bucket and left on her biological mother’s front lawn two years ago.

Landon, whose exact age is unknown, was in a cohabitating relationship with Bella’s father. She was convicted by a jury last week of first-degree murder and two counts of obstruction in connection with the crimes that occurred in Harahan’s Imperial Woods subdivision.

Landon was watching Bella and her older sister on the night of April 25, 2023 while their father worked late. In text messages to their father, Landon assured him that she tucked the girls into their beds, and that the tooth fairy had visited Bella’s older sister.

In truth, she had murdered Bella, likely as her sister slept.

“Someday I will forgive you, because I want to be in heaven to see Bella,” Bella’s 9-year-old sister wrote in impact testimony, a statement that her mother read aloud in court Tuesday before Landon received her punishment.

Click here to read about the trial.

Life in prison without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence is the mandatory punishment for first-degree murder under state law. Judge Nancy Miller of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced Landon to the maximum 40 years for each of the obstruction counts and ran them consecutively.

Judge Miller, who has presided over the case since it was allotted to her court in August 2023, indicated that she was aware of the facts in the case leading up to last week’s trial.

“I can honestly say it was worse than I imagined,” Judge Miller said. She added that “evil was on full display” in her courtroom.

“This court never wants you to see the light of day again,” the judge told Landon in defending the consecutive sentences.

Landon was convicted of obstruction for tampering with evidence to hinder the investigation. She removed Bella’s body from the crime scene, which was her father’s Donelon Drive home and the crime scene. After leaving Bella’s body on her mother’s front lawn, Landon buried her cell phone in a vacant lot in the subdivision.

During Tuesday’s sentencing hearing, Judge Miller received seven victim-impact testimony sentences and heard three of them, beginning with Bella’s father. He shared custody of Bella and her older sister with their biological mother, “until Bella was brutally murdered on the night of April 25, 2023, and placed in a bucket like a piece of trash, then dumped on (her mother’s) front yard as if she were to be picked up” by Harahan’s waste disposal contractor.

After reading the statement written by Bella’s sister, her mother testified about the private, simple life she lived before her second-born was taken from her. After the highly publicized crime, she became the target of internet “trolls” who viciously criticized her in social media commentary.

“I did everything in my power to protect my child,” she said in testimony aimed at the trolls.

To Landon, she said, “You made a decision that changed the course of all our lives. Not only did you condemn me and my family to a life sentence of pain and sadness, but you also condemned (Bella’s sister) to a life of not getting to know her sister past the age of six. (Bella’s sister) no longer has a sister to fight with, to share secrets with, to confide in, to share her first kiss, to make matron of honor at her wedding, to become an aunt and Godmother to her children.”

Assistant District Attorneys Rachel Africk, Lindsay Truhe and Alyssa Aleman prosecuted the case.

 

Jury rejects Bunnak Landon’s insanity defense, convicts her of murdering 6-year-old Bella Fontenelle

A Jefferson Parish jury deliberated for 45 minutes in rejecting Bunnak “Hannah” Landon’s insanity defense on Thursday (May 1), convicting her of beating and strangling 6-year-old Bella Fontenelle in her Harahan home before placing the child’s body in a 13-gallon bucket and leaving the remains on her biological mother’s front lawn.  

Landon, whose exact age is unclear, is guilty as charged of first-degree murder and two counts of obstruction of justice in connection with Bella’s death on the night of April 25, 2023, jurors unanimously decided at the end of the 4-day trial. 

Landon had pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. Her lawyers argued she could not be held legally responsible for Bella’s death because a mental defect prevented her from distinguishing right from wrong – an assertion that prosecutors promptly shot down. 

“There is so much evidence that shows she knew right from wrong,” Assistant District Attorney Rachel Africk told jurors Thursday in closing argument. 

“She knew what she did was wrong,” Assistant District Attorney Lindsay Truhe told jurors in closing argument. “She just did not care. She is just evil.” 

A former stripper who performed at venues along the Gulf Coast under the stage name Valentina, Landon met Bella’s father at a Baton Rouge gentleman’s club. A lap dance led to a 4-year-long cohabitating romantic relationship in which Landon often looked after Bella and her older sister at his home in Harahan’s Imperial Woods subdivision. 

Bella and her sister alternated between their parents’ homes under a custody agreement. Bella struggled emotionally with her parents’ split and more so with Landon’s presence in her father’s home. Her pre-kindergarten and kindergarten teachers noted the child’s inner struggle through observing – and documenting — her growing anxiety, frequent crying and declining grades. They associated the child’s behaviors with time she had to spend at her father’s, and particularly with “Miss Hannah.” 

“That little girl would tell anyone who would listen to her that, ‘Miss Hannah is mean to me,’” ADA Africk told jurors in opening statements Tuesday. Bella feared telling her father about it until the day before she died. 

On the evening of April 25, 2023, while Bella’s father worked late at his job as an accountant in Kenner, Landon again watched over the children. The children’s paternal grandmother picked up the girls from school and spent the afternoon with them before dropping them off at their home. 

The grandmother departed at about 7:30 p.m., Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office homicide detectives learned. They developed a timeline of the night’s events based on footage they obtained from numerous residential surveillance systems in the Imperial Woods subdivision. 

Landon killed Bella soon after her grandmother departed. At about 9:30 p.m., according to video surveillance footage at the Donelon Drive home, Landon emerged pulling a blue canvas wagon holding the bucket in which she forced Bella’s 48-pound body.  

Dressed in a pink long sleeve shirt, black tights and white knee-high boots, Landon pulled the wagon less than ¼-mile away to Bella’s biological mother’s home one street over. She placed the bucket on the front lawn at about 9:35 p.m., and returned to the Donelon Drive residence towing the empty wagon. 

She departed the residence at about 9:45 p.m., never to return (at one point during the evening, she told Bella’s sister that she was going to Florida in the morning). Bella’s father arrived home from his job about five minutes after Landon walked away. He went straight to bed without checking on his daughters. He assumed that Landon was sleeping on the sofa. 

Her whereabouts during the following two hours are unknown. Landon walked into the Harahan Police Department headquarters on Jefferson Highway at about 11:45 p.m. She was uncooperative with the officers who questioned her and provided aliases. She agreed to be sent to East Jefferson General Hospital, where she underwent a brief mental examination and was committed but was given no medication. 

When Bella’s father woke up the following morning, he discovered that Bella and Landon were missing. He dressed his older daughter for school and brought her to her mother’s home. He contacted the Harahan Police Department at about 7:30 a.m., triggering an Amber Alert and a large police search that ranged from checking the cabinets in her father’s home to patrolling miles of the nearby Mississippi River batture. 

It was Bella’s maternal grandmother, who rushed from her West Bank home to Harahan amid the frantic search for the missing child, who first noticed the bucket on the lawn at the foot of the driveway when she arrived at about 8:15 a.m. 

Bella’s mother investigated the bucket, saw blood on its exterior. She was unable to unscrew its lid. She instinctively knew it was her second-born. 

She called Bella’s father. He arrived moments later with Harahan police officers. A sergeant removed the bucket’s lid and found Bella’s body, clad in pink pajamas with white polka dots. 

After viewing residential video security footage of Landon leaving the bucket on the lawn the night before, Sheriff’s Office homicide detectives learned that Landon was at East Jefferson General Hospital. They arrested her there later that day.  

Detectives learned that after she killed Bella the night before, Landon called her sister in Alabama about contacting her lawyer. She also told her sister that she sealed her cellphone in a plastic bag and buried it in a vacant corner lot next to a Y-shaped tree in the neighborhood. That lawyer contacted the Sheriff’s Office Homicide Division commander to report it.  

Soon after, detectives recovered the phone. Investigating the phone’s data, the Sheriff’s Office later found that shortly before she killed Bella, Landon video-recorded the child in her bedroom crying, repeating over and over through her tears, “I want my grandma.” In turn, Landon placed a bath towel at the bottom of Bella’s bedroom door to dampen the sound of her cries. 

They found that Landon used a search engine on the cellphone to repeatedly research a criminal defense attorney’s trial preparation services, after seeing his name in an online news story. She did so even as she sent text messages to Bella’ father, telling him the children were tucked in their beds and that the tooth fairy had visited Bella’s older sister.  

She sent text messages to two of her stripper friends after she killed Bella. “Always remember me as Valentina,” and “I’ll always remember the good times we had,” she told them before deleting the text messages in her phone – messages that the Sheriff’s Office Digital Forensic Unit recovered.  

Landon also called her ex-boyfriend’s mother who was raising her two biological children in Florida. “I’m at peace with what I’ve decided to do,” Landon cryptically told the woman shortly before killing Bella. (That ex-boyfriend is not the father of her children). 

The Sheriff’s Office Crime Lab concluded through DNA analysis that it was Landon’s blood was on the bucket.  

The Jefferson Parish Coroner’s Office determined that Bella died from asphyxia due to strangulation and blunt-force trauma. The pathologist found numerous bruises on Bella’s head and abrasions on her neck that were indicative of the child’s fingernails scratching against Landon’s hands while she was being strangled. 

The autopsy also revealed that Bella still may have been alive, although unconscious, when Landon folded her little body and stuffed it in the bucket head first. 

At trial, her attorneys argued that because of a mental illness, Landon did not know right from wrong when she killed Bella. They provided testimony from a forensic psychiatrist who evaluated Landon 13 times, with the first meeting occurring three days after Landon killed Bella. The psychiatrist concluded that Landon suffers from mental disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder rooted in her childhood in a Khmer Rouge death camp in her native Cambodia. 

The psychiatrist asserted that Landon was in the throes of “a psychotic episode” when she killed Bella, primarily basing her assessment on her review of reports by Harahan police and the doctors who interacted and evaluated her soon after the murder. Landon claimed to lack memory of what happened, including pulling the wagon with Bella’s remains in the bucket. Landon did claim to recall Bella clawing at her own neck and to holding Bella’s body while listening to Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, the defense psychiatrist told jurors. 

However, when asked under cross-examination by ADA Truhe whether the psychiatrist could definitively say Landon could not distinguish right from wrong when she killed Bella, the psychiatrist said, “At that moment, no. I can’t tell that.” 

In rebuttal, ADA Africk provided the testimony of Dr. Gina Manguno-Mire, who was qualified as an expert in forensic psychology. Dr. Manguno-Mire met with Landon for a total of 22 hours, reviewed numerous records and evidence in the criminal case, and interviewed people who knew Landon at the time she killed Bella. 

Landon has a personality disorder, Dr. Manguno-Mire testified, but the legal question is whether that condition left Landon incapable of knowing right from wrong. Her conclusion: Landon was sane when she killed Bella. Based on her actions leading up to and after the murder, she was aware that she knew what she was doing was wrong. 

“It’s my opinion that she understood the consequences of her actions at the time,” Dr. Manguno-Mire testified. 

Dr. Manguno-Mire found that Landon was malingering, meaning she was feigning a mental defect. She diagnosed Landon as having a major depressive disorder and narcissistic, histrionic and borderline personality disorders, which tied into a fear of abandonment. 

Landon felt her relationship with Bella’s father was jeopardized because of Bella, the psychologist opined. Bella, diagnosed with separation disorder because of her parents’ split, was in counseling with a child psychologist in the weeks before she died. Bella disclosed in the sessions that Landon was mean to her. With the help of counseling, Bella worked up the courage to open up to her father about Landon. That in turn led her father to confront Landon. He told her he would “reassess” their relationship if he heard this from his daughter again. 

Landon killed Bella the following day. 

“This isn’t a woman who is outside her faculties,” ADA Africk told jurors Thursday. “This is a woman who is pissed off and evil.” 

In addition to the first-degree murder charge, Landon was convicted of two counts of obstruction of justice, one for removing Bella’s body from the murder scene and the other for burying her cellphone. Both actions were undertaken to hinder the criminal investigation – more evidence showing that Landon knew right from wrong. 

Judge Nancy Miller of the 24th Judicial District Court set Landon’s sentencing for May 6. 

Assistant District Attorneys Rachel Africk, Lindsay Truhe and Alyssa Aleman prosecuted the case. 

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 stepbrother 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 stepbrother. 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).

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

 

Anthony Morgan sentenced to life in Airline Drive murder

A Jefferson Parish judge on Wednesday (Feb. 26) sentenced Anthony Morgan to spend the rest of his life in prison for opening fire on a rival on Airline Drive in Metairie, fatally wounding him as he sat in the driver’s seat of his car.

Armed with an assault-style rifle, Morgan, 42, of Metairie, fired numerous bullets at Aaron Lee on the night of April 25, 2022, while Lee waited at a traffic light at Airline and Turnbull drives. Four bullets struck Lee, including a head wound that ended the 44-year-old Metairie resident’s life in a hospital three days later.

For that, a jury found Morgan guilty as charged of second-degree murder on Dec. 5.

Click here to read about the trial.

In victim-impact testimony presented during the sentencing hearing, members of Lee’s family described him a joyful man of faith. “My dad once again won’t see me cross the stage in a cap and gown,” wrote one of his daughters, who was a high school athlete when he was murdered and is now a 19-year-old college student.

His youngest daughter noted they were somewhat estranged. “It tears me apart that my daddy left this earth thinking his youngest daughter never wanted to see him again,” she wrote.

His mother described the anger, sadness and depression she has experienced as a result of her oldest son’s death. She referred to him as her best friend. Morgan “took that away from me, and I’ll never be the same,” she wrote.

Directing his comments to Lee’s family and friends in the courtroom, Morgan expressed his sorrow for what happened, calling it “a sad situation” and insisting he was defending himself when he shot Lee. He then bemoaned his going to prison for life: “I’m sorry for what y’all going through. My family lost me, too.”

After denying post-verdict defense motions, Judge June Berry Darensburg of the 24th Judicial District Court expressed condolences for Lee’s family. She noted that Morgan initially denied involvement. Morgan then asserted self-defense.

“You continue to make excuses today,” Judge Darensburg told Morgan. “I think what you said to the family was disrespectful.”

She sentenced Morgan to mandatory life in prison without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence.

In addition to the murder count, jurors found Morgan guilty of three counts of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm and two counts of obstruction of justice.

Judge Darensburg sentenced Morgan to 20 years for each of the firearm counts and 40 years for each of the obstruction counts – the maximum on all. She ran the sentences concurrently.

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

 

Tyrone Constant sentenced to 50 years in Harvey pizza business attack

A Jefferson Parish judge has sentenced Tyrone Constant to 50 years in prison for his conviction of brutally attacking a 20-year-old employee of a West Bank pizza business with a machete-type knife.

A Jefferson Parish jury on Feb. 5 found Constant, 40, of Harvey, guilty as charged of attempted second-degree murder for the May 23, 2020 attack inside the business in the 1600 block of Gretna Boulevard in Harvey.

Click here to read about the trial.

The victim knew Constant by his first name from his visits to the business. She did nothing to provoke the attack.

In victim-impact testimony on Feb. 21, the victim’s mother said that “the aftermath of this entire ordeal is far worse,” citing the 16 surgeries, more than 200 doctors’ appointments and 300 physical and occupational surgeries she has endured – in addition to the emotional trauma.

Constant “left her broken, insecure, literally scarred and scared to live a life outside of her home,” the mother said. “And for the record, she doesn’t feel completely safe there, either. (Constant) not only shattered bones, (he) also shattered her peace and dreams. She no longer looks forward to her future. To say the least, it has dimmed her light. She no longer shines as bright as she did before the attack.”

After denying defense requests for post-verdict motions for a new trial and acquittal, Judge Jacqueline Maloney of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced Constant to the maximum 50 years for attempted second-degree murder.

She additionally sentenced Constant to two 6-month sentences in finding him in contempt of court for two courtroom outbursts – one during the trial and one during Friday’s sentencing hearing. Judge Maloney ran the sentences consecutively, for a total of 51 years.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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