Category: What’s New

Dekias Stevenson convicted of murdering Slidell man in drug robbery

A Jefferson Parish jury on Friday (Oct. 2) found Dekias Stevenson guilty for his role in the death of a Slidell man, who was shot after being lured to a West Bank apartment complex to be robbed.

Stevenson, 23, of Harvey, was convicted as charged of the second-degree murder of Andrew Davis IV, 21. Stevenson additionally was convicted of obstruction of justice, for getting rid of the pistol he used to shoot Davis.

On Aug. 17, 2024, Stevenson contacted Davis about purchasing marijuana but planned to rob him. Davis, traveling with his girlfriend, agreed to meet Stevenson at the apartment complex in which he lived, in the 1000 block of Manhattan Boulevard. By then, Stevenson had already contacted two friends and asked them to meet him at the complex.

After parking inside the complex, Stevenson and Lavanta Carto, who traveled to Harvey from Chalmette, got into the back seat of Davis’s car. Stevenson and Carto were armed. So, too, was Davis. Stevenson sat behind Davis in the driver’s seat. There was no heated conversation that preceded the first gunshot inside the car.

“It was a callous, cold-blooded murder,” Assistant District Attorney Erich Cathey told jurors in closing argument Friday. “He didn’t need to buy marijuana that day. He had no reason to call Andrew Davis to Manhattan Boulevard, to Westchase Apartments. He was not buying it. That’s the key here. He had marijuana. He had every intention of robbing Andrew Davis.”

“He was just supposed to get his weed for free,” Assistant District Attorney Lindsay Truhe told jurors Friday. “Andrew Davis was nothing but a victim, a plug he could kill so he could get his weed.” (Plug is street slang for a drug dealer, a term Stevenson repeatedly used to describe Davis when interrogated by a detective following his arrest).

When the first bullet was fired, Davis’s girlfriend ran for cover behind a nearby trash receptacle. Stevenson and Carto got out of the back seat and fired their pistols at Davis – Stevenson with a .40-caliber semiautomatic and Carto with a 9mm semiautomatic. There was no evidence showing that Davis initiated the shooting by brandishing his .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol, which deputies later found on the front passenger’s seat.

“He (Davis) was acting in self-defense,” Assistant DA Cathey told jurors. “That was the reality here. He just wasn’t quick enough. And he paid the ultimate price, because he wasn’t fast enough.”

During the melee, a bullet entered Davis’s chin on the right side, lacerating his right aortic artery and severing his spinal cord. He was left paralyzed and unable to defend himself as he died within minutes.

After the gunmen fled, Davis’s girlfriend returned to the car and drove it to a nearby business, where she called 911. Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived to find the mortally wounded Davis, who died at the scene.

Detectives found one .40-caliber shell casing inside their car, showing that Stevenson fired at least once while sitting in the back seat. Detectives found more .40-caliber casings and 9mm casings at the shooting scene. Of the nine bullets fired that day, Stevenson fired six of them.

Detectives also found 105 grams of marijuana at the scene, along with two pistols, neither of which was fired.

Developed as a suspect, Stevenson was arrested on Aug. 22, 2024, in Baker, La., where he fled on the day of the murder. In an interview with a detective lasting more than eight hours, Stevenson told more than a dozen stories, from denying involvement to casting himself as a victim of an armed robbery perpetrated by Carto. He admitted to firing his pistol, but only in defending himself. He continued to deny luring Davis to the complex to rob him and then acknowledged that others planned the robbery.

Dr. Timothy Scanlan, testifying as an expert in crime scene reconstruction, told jurors Thursday that based on the bullet strikes on Davis’s car and where the bullet casings landed after being ejected from the pistols, Stevenson and Carto directed their gunfire on Davis as he sat in the driver’s seat. Dr. Scanlan called it “focused fire.”

“He claimed self-defense,” Assistant DA Truhe said of Stevenson. “When you’re the aggressor, that is not an option for him. Focused fire. Andrew sat in that car and had nine shots fired at him.”

Stevenson is the fourth person to be convicted in connection with Davis’s death. The others:

  • Carto, 28, of Algiers, was convicted by a jury in June of second-degree murder, two counts of obstruction of justice and of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of probation, parole or suspension of sentence.
  • Joshua Tumbar, 30, of New Orleans, pleaded guilty as charged in October 2025 to obstruction of justice, accessory to second-degree murder and distribution of marijuana. He was sentenced to seven years in prison. Using his uncle’s car that day, he drove with Carto to the apartment complex after speaking on the phone with Stevenson. After Davis was shot, Tumbar gave Stevenson a $500 bag of marijuana as a trade for Stevenson’s .40-caliber pistol he used in the shooting – the underlying facts for his distribution of marijuana charge. Tumbar, called to testify by prosecutors, told jurors that he routinely sold marijuana to Stevenson, raising question as to why Stevenson would need to purchase marijuana from Davis. That, prosecutors argued, showed that Stevenson’s arranging a meeting with Davis was to rob him, not to purchase marijuana. “There was no reason to call anybody for weed. You had weed, right?” Assistant DA Truhe asked him. “Right,” Tumbar replied. Tumbar testified that he did not know what became of the .40-caliber pistol he acquired from Stevenson.
  • Janisha Hymes, 24, of New Orleans, pleaded guilty as charged in October 2025 to obstruction of justice and was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison. She was Stevenson’s girlfriend. Soon after the murder, he called Hymes while she was at her job in Metairie. She picked him up in Marrero and drove with him to the apartment complex, only to turn around because of the Sheriff’s Office presence at the murder scene. She then traveled with him to Baker.

The jury that was seated on Monday and heard testimony from 19 state witnesses, deliberated for 1 ½ hours before returning with their unanimous verdicts.

Judge Ellen Shirer Kovach of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Stevenson on Thursday (Oct. 8).

Assistant District Attorneys Erich Cathey and Lindsay Truhe prosecuted the case.

 

Danette Colbert gets 60 years in racketeering and death of Super Bowl reporter

A Jefferson Parish judge on Monday (Sept. 28) sentenced Danette Colbert to 60 years in prison, including for causing the death of Adan Manzano, a Kansas-based sports reporter who died in his Kenner hotel room last year.

Colbert, 49, was convicted of negligent homicide and of racketeering by a jury on Sept. 17. She and her pimp and co-defendant Rickey White were part of a years-long scheme in which Colbert and others targeted seemingly affluent men in New Orleans tourism spots and drugged them in hotel rooms during their trysts before stealing their belongings as they slept if off.

Their last known victim was Manzano, 27, of Topeka, Kan. He was in New Orleans to cover the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl for the Spanish-language news outlet Telemundo when he met Colbert in the French Quarter. She accompanied Manzano to his hotel room in Kenner. At one point, she slipped him alprazolam, a sedative. That, coupled with alcohol, caused his death from “positional asphyxia.”

Click here to read about the trial.

During Monday’s sentencing hearing, Judge Nancy Miller of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced Colbert to the maximum 50 years for racketeering and ran it consecutive to the 10 years she gave him for negligent homicide. Further, Judge Miller ran her sentences consecutively to the 25 years Colbert already is serving out of Orleans Parish for fraud and theft.

“I understand your family’s desire to have you home,” Judge Miller told Colbert in announcing her sentences. “I don’t share in that sentiment.”

Colbert will appear before Judge Miller on Oct. 14, when she faces receiving even more prison time under Louisiana’s habitual offender law. Colbert’s criminal history in New Orleans and Jefferson parishes includes convictions of computer fraud, illegal transmission of monetary funds, access device fraud, possession of stolen property, theft, burglary, second-degree battery and simple robbery. She was on probation for some New Orleans convictions when she caused Manzano’s death.

White, 35, stood trial with Cobert and was convicted of racketeering. He was acquitted of manslaughter. Judge Miller sentenced White to 45 years in prison.

Members of Manzano’s family, including his parents testifying from their home via Zoom, urged Judge Miller to give the maximum sentences. They noted that months before Manzano died, his wife was killed in an automobile collision, leaving their toddler daughter without parents.

“I don’t want to say anything to the people that committed this crime, because they are beings of darkness, beings that don’t have God in their lives,” Manzano’s mother testified through an interpreter. “But I don’t think they should go on with life causing harm and killing people. Because I still can’t accept that Adan is not here. … This loss, I’ll never overcome it. I don’t wish this on anybody, on any family.”

Manzano’s father called it “a sad day for me and my family.”

“May the laws of this country lock up the people that destroyed my life,” he testified. “I respectfully ask that you give them the sentencing they deserve.”

Two of Manzano’s cousins also provided victim-impact testimony. “You guys should pay your entire life for it,” one of the cousins testified. Another cousin recalled proudly seeing Manzano on television. “He left Mexico to pursue the American dream,” the cousin testified. “He loved his work and the chance to do it on American soil.”

Assistant District Attorneys Jenny Voss, Mallory Grefer and Brendan Bowen prosecuted the case.

Prostitute and pimp convicted of racketeering in 2025 Super Bowl reporter’s death

A Jefferson Parish jury on Thursday (Sept. 17) found a prostitute and her pimp guilty of being part of a criminal enterprise in which they targeted seemingly affluent men in New Orleans tourism spots and drugged them in hotel rooms during their trysts before stealing their belongings as they slept it off.

Their last known victim was Adan Manzano, who was in town to cover the Super Bowl last year when he met prostitute Danette Colbert in the French Quarter and later died in his Kenner hotel room from the narcotics she gave them.

Colbert, 49, of Slidell, and Rickey White, 35, of Harvey, were convicted as charged of racketeering. Both were also charged with manslaughter in Manzano’s death. Jurors found Colbert guilty of negligent homicide, a lesser charge, and White not guilty of manslaughter.

They and others were engaged in a years-long scheme in which Colbert and other prostitutes lurked in New Orleans’ tourist areas in search of men whom they could lure to their rooms. Along the way, they secretly provided their unwitting victims with sedatives that would cause them to fall asleep. They then would steal their cell phones, credit cards and other items of value, including pricy watches.

Colbert “has been doing this for years, and she has not been doing it alone,” Assistant District Attorney Jenny Voss told jurors in closing argument Thursday in describing the racketeering charge. “Enterprise, a group of people associated in fact. Danette Colbert was not doing this by herself. Danette Colbert was doing this with Rickey White (and others). They were not just pals. They were partners. All of them together had a separate role.”

White, the pimp known as “King Rickey,” played a central role in the enterprise. “Rickey White was the one they went to for instruction,” Assistant DA Voss said. “He was the one they went to with the (stolen) property. He was the one who helped them get into the phones and get the money. And he disbursed it from there.”

Manzano, 27, of Topeka, Kan., was a widower and the father of a young child. He was working for the Spanish-language Telemundo network when he was dispatched to New Orleans to cover the Super Bowl. On Feb. 4, 2025, he and his colleagues partied in the French Quarter’s tourist areas where he met Colbert. She convinced the seemingly intoxicated man to take her to his hotel room in Kenner.

At one point, after drinking tequila with Manzano, Colbert gave him alprazolam, a central nervous system suppressant used to treat anxiety and other conditions and is known by the brand name Xanax. Kenner police, conducting a wellness check on the afternoon of Feb. 5, 2025 in response to a 911 call from Manzano’s colleagues, found his body face-down in his hotel bed. He had been dead for an estimated eight to 10 hours.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I wish I could tell you something different, but the truth is, there is nothing anybody in this room can do to bring Adan Manzano back to his family,” Assistant District Attorney Brendan Bowen told jurors in closing argument Thursday, urging them to convict Colbert and White. “What you can do is make his death mean something. Let Adan Manzano be the last victim that Rickey White and Danette Colbert ever get to target.”

Toxicology tests done during the autopsy found that Manzano had ingested benzodiazepines, which is a class of suppressants that includes alprazolam. Alprazolam was one of the choice of drugs that Colbert and her cohorts called “knock-out” and were used to incapacitate their victims. Additionally, Manzano’s blood-alcohol content was 0.232 percent, about three times higher than the legal limit to drive in Louisiana.

The Jefferson Parish Coroner’s Office concluded that the combination of the drug, the alcohol and “positional asphyxia” caused Manzano’s death. In effect, the alprazolam, in concert with the alcohol, rendered him unconscious and unable to move, meaning he suffocated with his face buried in a pillow.

Following her arrest on Feb. 7, 2025, Colbert admitted to Kenner Police Department detectives that they drank straight tequila that morning. She denied giving him drugs or stealing from him. However, detectives found an unmarked bottle of alprazolam on the nightstand in her Slidell bedroom, next to the key to Manzano’s hotel room and a receipt she obtained after using one of Manzano’s credit cards. Manzano was not known to use alprazolam and had no other drugs in his system.

The investigation into Manzano’s death by Kenner police, Louisiana State Police and the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office Digital Forensics Unit yielded tens of thousands of text messages, images and videos that showed how Colbert, White and others had engaged in a criminal enterprise in which they targeted men.

In one of the messages sent six months before Manzano died, they acknowledged that someone could die from their activities.

“They knew it,” Assistant DA Voss told jurors of the potential lethality. “They knew it months before it happened. And they did it anyway, because this was a big weekend for them.”

Kenner police also obtained security video from Project NOLA, a nonprofit that operates an array of crime cameras in the French Quarter. Videos showed Manzano and his colleagues partying, and the videos show Manzano with his arm around Colbert at about 3 a.m.

The last Project NOLA video found during the investigation shows Colbert and Manzano on Bourbon Street at Canal Street at 3:14 a.m. Seven minutes later, Colbert texted a personal identification number to White, presumably meaning she had already gotten a PIN number belonging to Manzano.

Police also obtained video of Manzano and Colbert arriving at Manzano’s hotel in the 2700 block of Idaho Avenue. Videos show Colbert leaving, purchasing drinks at a nearby convenience store and returning to the room. None show Manzano leaving.

Immediately after she left Manzano’s hotel room a final time, Colbert went to a convenience store in the 1600 block of Tulane Avenue in New Orleans. She used one of Manzano’s credit cards to purchase a charger for Manzano’s cell phone, which she also stole.

She also began texting and calling White after leaving Manzano’s hotel room.

Colbert made numerous videos of herself, beginning while she was still in Manzano’s hotel room, where she practiced using the swipe code to open Manzano’s cell phone and tried to log into his bank accounts on his cell phone. She did so “while he lay dying or dead,” Assistant DA Voss told jurors.

She recorded more videos of herself as she drove away from the hotel and into New Orleans, singing and boasting about her successes and her ability to pay her $2,000 monthly rent. She also boasted about “Rick,” meaning White, her pimp.

“She is dripping with pride as she speaks about her abilities as a thief and her pride in her relationship with Rickey White,” Assistant DA Bowen told jurors. “She’s practically swearing fealty to him over the internet, because he’s ‘King Rickey.’”

Among the other videos, she recorded herself marveling over the information that Manzano had stored on the cell phone related to his coverage of the Super Bowl, including the hotels where the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles were staying and where the teams were practicing. She also had photographs of Manzano’s driver’s license.

The defense attorneys described their clients as “petty thieves” and “schmucks on Bourbon Street,” but denied they plied Manzano with alprazolam or that there was an organized criminal enterprise needed to prove racketeering.

Jurors this week heard testimony from victims of this scheme, including a man who said he  lost about $100,000 because of an encounter with Colbert. Louisiana State Police, using information obtained from the thousands of text messages between Colbert, White and others, investigated to find other victims of the criminal enterprise.

A third codefendant charged with Colbert and White in the criminal enterprise, Christian Dean Anderson, 35, of Slidell, entered into a plea agreement with the District Attorney’s Office and testified against the duo this week, laying out details of how the criminal enterprise operated and testifying that he had seen Colbert put drugs in victims’ drinks.

Anderson pleaded guilty to simple robbery and access device fraud. Judge Nancy Miller of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced Anderson to six years in prison for each count. The judge ran the sentences concurrently and noted he gets credit for the year he already has been in custody. In connection with his guilty plea, Anderson told Judge Miller that he let Colbert use his car, which she used to drive Manzano to his hotel.

Jurors deliberated for 5 ½ hours before returning with their verdicts just after 6 p.m. Judge Miller is scheduled to sentence Colbert and White on Sept. 28.

Assistant District Attorneys Jenny Voss, Brendan Bowen and Mallory Grefer prosecuted the case.

 

Serial rapist Donnell Bluain sentenced to six consecutive life sentences

A Jefferson Parish judge on Monday (Sept. 14) sentenced serial rapist Donnell Bluain to six back-to-back life sentences in prison for raping six women in East Jefferson four decades ago.

“We all have waited 40 years for justice to catch up with you, and it finally has,” one of Bluain’s victims said in victim-impact testimony during Monday’s sentencing hearing.

On Sept. 3, a jury found Bluain, 60, a former Metairie resident, guilty as charged of six counts of aggravated rape. Each count carries a mandatory life sentence in prison without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence. Click here to read about the trial.

During Monday’s sentencing hearing, Judge Shayna Beevers Morvant of the 24th Judicial District Court ran the six sentences consecutively and consecutive to the life sentence he’s serving in Georgia for raping women in that state after he left Jefferson Parish in the late 1980s.

“You had a reign of terror not only for the women of Jefferson Parish, but their fathers, their brothers, their sons, people who sat here at this (witness) stand and explained the precautions they took for their wives, their daughters and their family members. The fear for them is over. You’ve taken no accountability. You’ve shown no remorse when you testified,”
the judge told Bluain.

“And here’s the fact: Some of these victims are now deceased. They passed away not ever knowing if they would ever get justice,” Judge Beevers Morvant said of three victims who have died since Bluain raped them.

Armed with either a knife or a screwdriver and at times concealing his identity by covering his face with his underwear or a mask, Bluain entered the victims’ homes through side or rear windows between January and July of 1986.

He evaded arrest for almost four decades, until the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Unit reopened its investigation in 2021 and subsequently identified him as the serial rapist through his DNA.

One of the surviving victims who testified Monday was raped twice by Bluain that night. “The fear I felt was enormous,” she testified, describing her inability to remain in her home until a friend could check each room and closet “for a very long time.” She had burglar bars installed on all windows and doors as a result, and she worried about being infected with HIV, she testified.

“The fear that remained with me was that I had been watched, and I had no idea,” she testified of being stalked by Bluain before he broke into her home. “Was I watched when I walked in my neighborhood? Was I watched when I cut my grass or when I drove my car to park and take the bus to New Orleans in the morning?”

Another victim testified that she is “profoundly grateful” to the detectives and investigators “whose dedicated work brought the truth to light.” She told Bluain she chose to forgive him rather than carry hatred in her heart.

The third victim to testify Monday told Bluain, “I recognized you when I came into this courthouse. And I knew you recognized me, too. There was no way you couldn’t recognize me. We spent a lot of time in that bathroom together.”

“I forgave you a long time ago,” she testified. “Because as long as I was not forgiving, I was being held a prisoner.”

“And I want you to know you owe a sincere apology, a heartfelt apology to all the victims whose lives you have impacted, and to their families, your own family,” she added.

Bluain said nothing during the hearing.

In addition to the prison time, Bluain is prohibited from contacting any of the victims and must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

Assistant District Attorneys Lindsay Truhe, Tommy Block and Sarah Helmstetter prosecuted the case.

After JPSO cold case investigation, Donnell Bluain convicted of raping six women in 1986

Forty years after Donnell Bluain broke into East Jefferson homes to rape and assault women, a Jefferson Parish jury deliberated about 45 minutes on Thursday (Sept. 3) in finding him guilty as charged of six counts of aggravated rape, rejecting his assertions that corrupt police in two states fabricated DNA and other evidence to frame him.

Bluain, 60, already was serving a life sentence for raping women in Georgia after he left Louisiana in the late 1980s, when his DNA, palm prints and his modus operandi connected him to rapes in Metairie and River Ridge between January and July of 1986.

Bluain now faces six mandatory life sentences in Louisiana, to be served without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence.

His conviction closes one of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office’s Cold Case Unit investigations. For almost four decades, until his genetic material confirmed he is East Jefferson’s serial rapist, Bluain was “a predator with no face, a rapist with no name,” Assistant District Attorney Lindsay Truhe told jurors in opening statements Tuesday.

“Donnell Bluain was a one-man nightmare, ripping fear in not just these women but throughout Jefferson Parish,” she told jurors Tuesday in urging them to find Bluain guilty. “Time may have delayed justice, but it will not prevent it. You will have the power to give these women justice. The time for accountability is now.”

Bluain lived in the 700 block of North Cumberland Street in Metairie in the 1980s, within two miles of his victims.

He broke into homes at night through side or rear windows while armed with screwdrivers or knives. He disguised himself by covering his head with his underwear or masks. He sometimes used socks as gloves. He walked through some of the homes nude from the waist down. He had a fixation on victims’ toes. He told some victims that he was raping them because “white men” raped women in his family.

“It was about power,” Assistant District Attorney Tommy Block told jurors Thursday in closing argument. “It was about control. He wanted control over these women. He chose the circumstances. He chose the time. He chose the victims. And they were the most vulnerable, in the safety of their homes. Many of them were asleep. And once he controlled them, he used them.”

Back then, Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office detectives knew they were pursuing a serial rapist, based on similarities the victims described.

His crimes caused widespread panic in East Jefferson neighborhoods, including Airline Park. The Sheriff’s Office participated in community meetings to inform the public about safety measures and formed a task force that included the FBI and local municipal police departments. Then-Sheriff Harry Lee turned to the news media in seeking the public’s help to identify the serial rapist.

‘A new set of eyes’

Bluain’s last known rape in Jefferson Parish occurred on July 30, 1986. The rapes remained unsolved until Sheriff’s Office Deputy Chief Curtis Matthews, chief of Special Investigations Bureau who formerly oversaw rape investigations, asked the Cold Case Unit to look at the old file in March 2021. The Cold Case Unit, which typically handles homicides, immediately reopened the rape investigation.

Cold Case Unit Capt. Denis Thornton and Detective Mary Adinolfi sought out decades-old evidence and reviewed the work of their predecessors in 1986. They sent the evidence they unearthed to the Sheriff’s Office Crime Lab for DNA testing, which did not exist four decades ago. Advances in science and investigative techniques were key to identifying Bluain as the rapist and bring him to trial, Assistant DA Block said.

“It also took the patience and determination of two highly skilled investigators with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, Capt. Denis Thornton and Detective Mary Adinolfi, to go back and look into those dusty boxes and at these cold cases from 1986 with a new set of eyes and put the pieces of this puzzle together,” Assistant DA Block told jurors.

On March 23, 2023, DNA testing yielded a profile for a suspect. But they still had no name. The detectives uploaded the profile to the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, which is national database that law enforcement agencies use to compare DNA profiles to known suspects and crimes.

Less than a month later, on April 19, 2023, Capt. Thornton received a call from a police lieutenant in Lilburn, Ga., informing the Jefferson Parish captain they had a CODIS hit. For the first time, the Sheriff’s Office had a name associated with the 1986 rapes: Donnell Bluain, who was serving life in prison for his conviction for multiple rapes and other offenses in Georgia in 1998. The Cold Case Unit detectives learned that Bluain, who worked in construction, married a woman in late 1989 and moved to the Atlanta area shortly after.

Jefferson Parish detectives traveled to Georgia armed with a search warrant to obtain a DNA sample. Sheriff’s Office DNA analysts ran more tests at the Crime Lab in Harvey and further confirmed that Bluain was the serial rapist. In one of the crimes, Bluain left his palm prints on the edge of a bathtub, providing further evidence of his involvement in the crimes.

Charges filed

In July 2025, a Jefferson Parish grand jury indicted him with six counts of aggravated rape:

  • Count 1: The Jan. 9, 1986, rape of a 26-year-old woman in her Maryland Street home in Metairie. Carrying a knife, he entered the home wearing a mask and no clothing below the waist.
  • Count 2: The Feb. 6, 1986, rape of a 24-year-old woman in her Green Acres Road home in Metairie. He carried a screwdriver as a weapon, wearing only a mask.
  • Count 3: The March 2, 1986, rape of a 29-year-old woman in her Peggy Street home in Metairie. He entered the home carrying a screwdriver as a weapon. His DNA was found on the victim’s nightgown. She has since died.
  • Count 4: The July 15, 1986, rape of a 62-year-old woman in her David Drive home in Metairie. Again, he entered the home carrying a screwdriver and wearing a mask. His DNA was recovered from a window through which he entered the home and on the victim’s pajamas. The victim has since died. It was the blood recovered from the window that led to his initial link to these crimes.
  • Count 5: The July 20, 1986, rape of a 32-year-old woman in her Florida Street home in River Ridge. As he did in previous rapes, he wore a mask and carried a screwdriver. His DNA was recovered from the victim’s clothing.
  • Count 6: The July 30, 1986, rape of 26-year-old woman in her Stein Street home in River Ridge. Covering his face with a white cloth, he implied to the victim that he was armed with a gun before he raped her. The victim has since died.

“Make no mistake: These women were victims, traumatized, terrorized,” Assistant DA Truhe told jurors in closing argument Thursday. “All they wanted to do is not die.”

‘I almost got you this time’

About two hours before that last rape, Bluain attempted to rape a woman in her Little Farms Avenue home. He failed in that rape, but he left behind a screwdriver with a yellow handle, similar to what he used in previous crimes. The Sheriff’s Office believed the serial rapist struck again.

In response, now-retired Sheriff’s Office Maj. Vic Amstutz, who in 1986 was a sergeant in the patrol division, knew that during the previous incidents, the serial rapist generally headed to the south. So, Maj. Amstutz began patrolling to the south of Little Farms Avenue. He patrolled Stein Street several times. And on his final pass, he noticed a light on at a home with a for sale sign out front that was previously dark. Suspicious, he stopped his patrol car and walked up to the front door. It was about 2:45 a.m.

The door was slowly opening. He heard whimpering and rapid breathing and then saw a woman beginning to cross the threshold. “She was obviously in distress and was quivering, crying,” Maj. Amstutz told jurors Wednesday. Behind her in the darkness, he saw a person’s arm holding the door.

“As she stepped down, she saw me,” Maj. Amstutz testified. “And when she saw me, she just bolted, started running toward me. She grabbed me so tight I had a hard time getting my gun out of my holster. I asked her, “Have you been attacked?’ She said, “He’s still in the house.’”

He directed her toward his patrol car. Instead of running into the house, he ran toward the rear, found an open window and waited for the suspect “to come crawling out.” He then heard what he thought was someone driving away in his patrol car. He ran to the front and learned that it was the victim who had gotten into the car. He rushed back toward the rear window but believed that by then the suspect had escaped through neighboring yards.

“I screamed out at him, ‘I almost got you this time. Next time I will,’” Maj. Amstutz testified.

Bluain never struck again. “That was the end of his terror in Jefferson Parish, because he almost got caught,” Assistant DA Truhe told jurors in opening statements.

Jurors heard that Bluain committed numerous other residential burglaries and attempted rapes during this week’s trial. Among them was a Jan. 9, 1986 incident on Ackle Street in which a woman was dragged from her home to a shed-like structure. The woman escaped being raped because she forcefully grabbed his testicles, leading him to flee.

‘Unworthy of belief’

Because Bluain testified Wednesday, jurors also heard about his convictions in Georgia: Three counts of rape, two counts of aggravated sodomy, one count of kidnapping with bodily injury and two counts of burglary. When he was arrested in Georgia, police found he had pornographic literature that involved “toe sucking,” jurors learned this week.

From the witness stand, Bluain denied the charges and said that police in two states fabricated evidence to frame him. He turned to his victims in the courtroom. “I did not rape y’all. I feel y’all pain, but I’m not the person that rape y’all. I was a burglar. I liked to burglarize. I did not rape anybody.”

In closing argument, Assistant DA Block called Bluain’s assertions “ridiculous claims.”

“His testimony was an insult to each and every one of you, ladies and gentlemen,” he told jurors, calling Bluain’s testimony “nothing but lies and unworthy of belief.”

Jurors who were seated on Monday and heard two days of testimony returned with their verdicts at about 11 a.m., Thursday.

Judge Shayna Beevers Morvant of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Bluain on Sept. 14 at 1 p.m.

Assistant District Attorneys Lindsay Truhe, Tommy Block and Sarah Helmstetter prosecuted the case.

News round-up: Two murderers and a child rapist sent to prison

Here’s a round-up of recent notable cases from Jefferson Parish’s 24th Judicial District Court.

Miker Ginorio, who killed his father with a baseball bat, gets life sentence

A Jefferson Parish judge on Wednesday (Aug. 26) sentenced Miker Ginorio to life in prison for his conviction for beating his father to death with a baseball bat in their Gretna home.

Ginorio, 42, was convicted by a jury of second-degree murder in the March 31, 2020, death of Carlos Ginorio Sr. The elder Ginorio suffered at least seven blows to his head during the attack inside their home in the 2500 block of Claire Avenue.

Click here to read about the trial.

In a victim-impact statement read aloud in court, the elder Ginorio’s daughter – and sister to Ginorio – called it “an unimaginable situation to be in for anyone, but that’s my reality.”

“It’s a lose-lose for us,” she said. “My dad didn’t deserve to be brutally beaten by anybody, especially not his son. Miker’s and my dad’s relationship wasn’t always so toxic. But Miker’s toxic trait was his drug use and how it would turn him into a different person, a person that was unpleasant to be around.”

After denying defense attorneys’ request to overturn the jury’s verdict, Judge Stephen Grefer of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced Ginorio to a mandatory life sentence in prison without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence.

Assistant District Attorneys Brooke Harris and Taylor Somerville prosecuted the case.

 

Nathaniel Hernandez, who fatally beat and stabbed girlfriend, gets life plus 40

A Jefferson Parish judge has sentenced Nathaniel Hernandez to spend the rest of his life in prison plus another 40 years for his conviction of stabbing and beating his girlfriend to death.

Hernandez, 43, of Marrero, who also uses the name Nathan Mendoza, received the mandatory punishment on Aug. 19, for his conviction of the second-degree murder of Sara Torello, 32. She suffered 22 stab wounds before he left her body under branches in a wooded area near Avondale on Nov. 17, 2022.

Click here to read about the trial.

Hernandez also was convicted of obstruction of justice, for burning Torello’s vehicle in the wooded area where he hid her body. Hernandez, who has a history of domestic violence, physically abused Torello at least four times during the month before her death.

During the sentencing hearing, family and friends of Torello provided victim-impact testimony. They described her as “a vibrant, young, loving mother” of a young son, an artistic and empathetic woman who worked two jobs to care for her boy and who confided her concerns about remaining with Hernandez.

“During the whole trial, there was no one behind you to support you, no one to speak on your behalf. Not a single person, Nathan,” Torello’s father told Hernandez. “The sad irony is that you were tried and found guilty of killing the one person that cared about you, the one person that saw something in you, the one person that showed you kindness.”

“You brutally stabbed and killed my daughter and then you tried to clumsily and cruelly conceal your horrendous crime,” he continued. “Obviously, you have no remorse. The pain that you caused to our family means nothing to you. The fact that you left an autistic child without his mother means nothing to you.”

After denying defense motions for a new trial and to overturn the jury’s verdict, Judge Michael Mentz of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced Hernandez to life without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence, and to 40 years for obstruction of justice. He ran the sentences consecutively.

Assistant District Attorneys Piper Didier and Leo Aaron prosecuted the case.

 

Ronell Everson admits to sexually abusing child, gets 40 years

Ronell Everson, 39, of Metairie, was sentenced Tuesday (Aug. 25) to 40 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a child.

“There is some hope in the world, but luckily you will never see it again,” the child’s grandmother told Everson in victim-impact testimony during the plea hearing, moments before Judge Michael Mentz of the 24th Judicial District Court announced the sentences.

The abuse came to light in January 2023, when Everson was discovered nude and sleeping in bed with the partially clothed victim, who was age 13 at the time. The victim later disclosed to a social worker at Manning Family Children’s hospital that the abuse had been happening for the prior three years.

When questioned by a Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office detective, Everson denied abusing the child and asserted he suffered from erectile disfunction. Everson’s DNA tied him to the sexual abuse.

He had faced trial on a charge of first-degree rape, which carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison. His guilty plea to second-degree rape, which was supported by the victim’s family, adverted the need for the victim to testify at trial.

In addition to second-degree rape, Everson pleaded guilty to sexual battery of a juvenile under age 13, molestation of a juvenile under age 13 and molestation of a juvenile.

Judge Mentz sentenced Everson to 40 years for the rape, sexual battery and molestation of a juvenile under age 13, and 20 years for the molestation of a juvenile charge.

The sentences were run concurrently and will be served at hard labor without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence.

“You will be required, if you’re ever released from the Department of Corrections, to register as a sex offender,” Judge Mentz told him.

Judge Mentz also issued a stay-away order that bars Everson from contacting the victim.

Assistant District Attorneys Piper Didier and James Wascom prosecuted the case.

Arsenio Adams sentenced to life plus 50 years for East Jefferson shooting that left man dead, two adults and their dog wounded

A Jefferson Parish judge has sentenced Arsenio Adams to life plus 50 years in prison, for his conviction of killing a man and wounding two others and a pet dog during a shooting in an East Jefferson residence. 

Adams, 37, of New Orleans, was convicted by a jury on July 16 of second-degree murder, two counts of attempted second degree murder and simple cruelty to an animal in connection with the May 14, 2019, shooting in the 2800 block of Clermont Street, in the Shrewsbury neighborhood. 

It was just after midnight when Adams, a drug dealer armed with a 7.62-mm assault-style rifle, went to the apartment to collect money he said was owed to him. His argument with a 57-year-old man over money caught the attention of Sterling Woods and his 55-year-old girlfriend, who resided at the apartment and were in their bedroom. 

As they emerged to investigate the argument, Adams opened fire with a 7.62 mm assault-style rifle. Woods, who fired a 9mm pistol once during the incident, was shot in his abdomen, back, a leg and an arm and died later at a hospital. He was 62. 

The surviving woman was shot in a shoulder, and the surviving man was wounded in an arm. Woods’ 2-year-old mixed breed dog, Sweet Pea, was shot in its right hind leg. The dog fled after being shot but returned to the scene after Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived. Animal control officers transported Sweet Pea to an animal hospital for treatment. 

One of the bullets pierced a wall and entered a neighboring apartment, narrowly missing an 85-year-old Navy veteran who resided there. 

Detectives identified Adams as the shooter and obtained an arrest warrant. A U.S. Marshals fugitive task force tracked Adams to Douglasville, Ga., where they arrested him two weeks after the crimes. 

“Arsenio Adams was on a mission for one thing that night: To collect on his drug debt,” Assistant District Attorney Taylor Somerville told jurors in closing argument on July 16. “When they didn’t have it, he lit the house up like a Christmas tree, shooting Mr. Woods eight times. 

“He doesn’t care about the lives he took,” Assistant DA Somerville said. “He doesn’t care about the damage he has caused these families. All he cared about was getting his money and not getting caught.” 

Jurors found Adams guilty of the murder and attempted murders, of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, obstruction of justice and simple cruelty to animals. Jurors acquitted Adams of aggravated criminal damage to property, for the bullet that entered the neighbor’s apartment. 

During the sentencing hearing on Aug. 20, Woods’ daughter and sister provided victim-impact statements. “He was not perfect,” his daughter said. “But he did not deserve to be killed and shot eight times. A loving father, brother, uncle and grandfather. We truly miss him.” 

Woods’ sister described him as “our rock, always laughing and clowning with everyone. And always willing to help. Young man gone too soon.”  

Judge Donnie Rowan of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced Adams to: 

  • Life in prison without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence for murdering Woods; 
  • 50 years in prison for the attempted murder of the 55-year-old woman; 
  • 50 years in prison for the attempted murder of the 57-year-old man; 
  • 20 years in prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm (he was prohibited from possessing firearms because of previous narcotics-related convictions in Jefferson Parish); 
  • 20 years in prison for obstruction of justice, and; 
  • Six months in the parish jail for injuring Sweet Pea. 

Judge Rowan ran the 50-year sentence for shooting the 57-year-old man consecutive to the life sentence. He ran the remaining sentences current to each other. 

Adams separately pleaded guilty on Aug. 20 to three charges involving his smuggling suboxone into the Jefferson Parish Correction Center in Gretna, where he was held while awaiting the murder trial. Judge Rowan sentenced Woods to two years in prison. 

Two of Adams’ co-conspirators also pleaded guilty to conspiring with Adams to smuggle the narcotic into the parish jail. Christopher M. Thomas, 33, who was a corrections officer at the jail, and Tonisha Poole, 38, were sentenced to two years in prison in October 2024. 

Adams also pleaded guilty on Aug. 20 to aggravated obstruction of a highway and received an 18-month sentence. That incident occurred in 2014. 

Assistant District Attorneys Taylor Somerville and Erich Cathey prosecuted the case. 

Armande Tart pleads guilty to four Metairie murders, gets life in prison

A Jefferson Parish judge sentenced Armande Tart to life in prison after he abruptly ended his trial Tuesday morning (Aug. 18) by pleading guilty as charged to murdering four people and attempting to kill a fifth person in a Metairie apartment complex.

Prosecutors were preparing to present testimony from their fourth witness in the trial that began on Monday when Tart’s attorneys announced that their client would plead guilty. Tart did so knowing that the mandatory punishment is life in prison without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence.

Tarte, 30, of New Orleans, received four life sentences in prison for brutally stabbing and strangling a man to death in his apartment in the 2500 block of Pasadena Avenue in the early morning hours of March 15, 2017. He then shot four people in another apartment in the small complex, killing three of them and leaving a surviving woman with permanent scars from a gunshot wound to her head.

This week marked the second time Tart was tried for the murders. He was convicted of the crimes in December 2020 and sentenced to life in prison a month later. But he received a new trial after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in an unrelated case, Ramos v. Louisiana, that non-unanimous verdicts are unconstitutional. All 12 jurors in his first trial did not agree on the verdicts.

In court on Tuesday, Tart apologized for taking their lives and blamed his actions on the illegal narcotics he was abusing at the time. The lone survivor said in victim-impact testimony that she did not know Tart, and he didn’t need to shoot her.

In dismissing the 12 jurors and two alternates who were selected on Monday morning, and after accepting Tart’s guilty plea and sentencing him, 24th Judicial District Judge Donald “Chick” Foret spoke of the victims’ families and “all the pain and suffering they had to go through.”

Tart’s first victim was Harold Frisard, 55, whom he stabbed 48 times in the neck and strangled to death, leaving his body in the bathtub before stealing many of his personal items.

A short while later, at about 3:30 a.m., Tart walked into a nearby apartment and asked the occupants to use the restroom. He then opened fire, killing Kyle Turner, 50, of Laplace; John Henry, 56, of Metairie; and Rose Mary Charles, 61, of Metairie. They all were shot in their heads, and all died at the scene.

He also shot the 33-year-old woman who accompanied Turner to the apartment complex for a narcotics transaction. Although shot twice, including once in the head, she survived and pretended to be dead. She listened motionless as Tart rifled through Turner’s pockets and fled after taking illegal drugs from the coffee table. Although she did not know Tart, she was able to identify him as the shooter.

“Everyone else was in the apartment dead. Executed. By one person,” Assistant District Attorney Jenny Voss told jurors in opening statements on Monday.

The surviving victim called 911 after Tart fled. The first Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived on the scene and entered the apartment. They found Charles slumped over on the sofa, still holding a lit cigarette. Turner lay on the floor in the entrance to the dining room, and Henry’s body was crumpled against a wall on the kitchen floor.

Investigating the shootings, detectives obtained the apartment complex’s security video footage. It showed that before he entered the apartment and departed four minutes later after shooting the victims, Tart had gone in and out of another apartment in the complex.

After obtaining a search warrant, detectives entered that second apartment hours after discovering the murder victims. “They walked in and did not expect to find what they found,” Assistant DA Voss told jurors. It was Frisard’s body.

In both apartments, detectives observed a shoe sole herringbone design tracked through blood, indicating that the same person was responsible for the crimes.

Three times during the crime spree, Tart tried to dislodge the lone video surveillance camera that looked over the apartment complex’s courtyard. Despite that, he was recorded walking to and from apartments.

At points, he concealed his identity by covering himself with what appeared to be a white bed sheet, “trying to disguise himself as a ghost in that apartment complex,” Assistant DA Voss told jurors.

After removing items from Frisard’s apartment, Tart left the scene with Turner’s cell phone and Turner’s black Acura. Tart ditched the cell phone in Algiers and the car in New Orleans’ Central City.

Detectives later used geolocation technology to track Tart’s whereabouts during and immediately following the murders. His cell phone was in the immediate vicinity of the murders when they occurred. Then, 20 minutes after the murders, Tart’s cell phone was in Algiers, near where Turner’s cell phone was later found. After that, his cell phone was in Central City, near where Turner’s car was found.

On the morning of the murders, Tart wore Adidas athletic paints with three stripes down the legs, and an L.B. Landry High School hoodie, according to video surveillance footage taken from the apartment complex. Detectives later found a video of Tart on his cell phone showing him wearing similar clothing. “He was wearing the same clothes as the perpetrator who committed these homicides,” Assistant DA Voss told jurors.

A separate video detectives found on Tart’s cell phone showed that nine days before the murders, he was in Frisard’s apartment. In the video, he brandishes a Smith & Wesson .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol. The imagery was clear enough to show the pistol’s serial number, allowing ballistics experts to determine that it was the murder weapon.

Frisard’s DNA was found throughout Turner’s car, suggesting that Tart used an item that belonged to Frisard to clean Turner’s vehicle before he abandoned it in Central City.

In opening statements on Monday, Tart’s attorneys told jurors that the evidence was not strong enough to prove their client committed the crimes.

Jurors heard testimony from three witnesses on Monday: One of the first deputies to arrive at the murder scene, a homicide detective and a DNA analyst. As the second day of the trial was about to begin, prosecutors were preparing to present testimony from the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy.

The prosecutors entered the courtroom to learn that Tart was willing to plead guilty as charged to:

  • Second-degree murder for killing Harold Frisard, for which Tart was sentenced to life in prison;
  • First-degree murder for killing Kyle Turner, for which Tart was sentenced to life in prison;
  • First-degree murder for killing Rosmary Charles, for which Tart was sentenced to life in prison;
  • First-degree murder for killing John Henry, for which Tart was sentenced to life in prison;
  • Attempted first-degree murder for shooting the surviving woman, for which Judge Foret sentenced Tart to 50 years in prison, the maximum;
  • Obstruction of justice, for which the judge sentenced Tart to 20 years in prison.

Judge Foret ran the sentences concurrently.

Assistant District Attorneys Rachel Africk and Jenny Voss prosecuted the case.

 

 

Talvis Keller pleads guilty to killing girlfriend’s father in exchange for 35-year sentence

A Jefferson Parish judge on Monday (Aug. 17) sentenced Talvis Keller to 35 years after he pleaded guilty to fatally shooting his girlfriend’s father during an argument on Christmas night of 2023.

Keller, 26, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of Taj Laurent Sr., 51. His guilty plea averted a possible life sentence had he been convicted as charged of second-degree murder this week in his trial. Jury selection was about to begin Monday morning when he pleaded guilty.

Laurent’s family supported the guilty plea and sentence. “The family has had mercy on you,” Judge June Berry Darensburg of the 24th Judicial District Court told Keller after hearing victim-impact testimony from Laurent’s widow, his daughter and his son. “They agreed to a manslaughter and a reduction in sentence to give you another chance.”

“My heart is shattered, and I can’t believe I have to live in a world without you,” Laurent’s widow said in victim-impact testimony directed toward her husband. She turned to Keller: “My heart does go out to you, for real,” she told him. “I love you Talvis, for real, even though this happened.”

Keller’s ex-girlfriend, who caught him cheating on her, testified. “My heart is broken,” she testified about the loss of her father before breaking into tears.

In a prepared statement, Laurent’s son testified that, “There are days when his absence feels impossible to put in words.”

Judge Darensburg sentenced Keller to 35 years for manslaughter and 10 years for obstruction of justice. The sentences were run concurrently.

Keller was romantically involved with Laurent’s daughter for about three years, and they lived together in the apartment in the 1000 block of Manhattan Boulevard for about six months.

At about 10 p.m., after visiting relatives during the Christmas holiday, Keller’s girlfriend returned to their apartment. Her parents and brother had dropped her off moments before she caught him in bed with another woman.

When Keller refused to leave, his girlfriend called her family, seeking help to have him removed. The woman who was with Keller left the apartment soon after his girlfriend walked in.

His girlfriend’s parents went up to the apartment and asked Keller to leave. He refused. An argument followed. Keller held a semiautomatic pistol. 911 was called. Keller shot Laurent once in the face, killing him.

Keller was arrested about 22 hours later at the Oasis motel in Gretna. There, Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office detectives found Keller hiding in a suitcase.

Two people in the room with him, Veranda Charles and Ketrone Robinson, were charged with accessory after the fact to second-degree murder. In October 2024, Charles and Robinson, both age 24 and of New Orleans, pleaded guilty as charged and received three years of active probation.

Assistant District Attorneys Zach Grate and Alexandra Herman prosecuted the case.

Byron Spottsville sentenced to life for Westwego playground murder

A Jefferson Parish judge on Monday sentenced Byron Spottsville to life in prison for his conviction of murdering a 26-year-old man in a Westwego playground.

Spottsville, 23, received the mandatory sentence for his conviction of second-degree murder in the death of Zashawn Espinoza.

Click here to read about the trial.

Judge R. Christopher Cox of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced Spottsville to mandatory life in prison without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence.

Judge Cox additionally sentenced Spottsville to 40 years in prison for obstruction of justice. He ran the sentences concurrently.

Spottsville was charged with obstruction of justice for hindering the investigation by hiding the clothing he wore during the murder, the murder weapon and items he stole from Espinoza in a nearby wooded area.

Assistant District Attorneys Sarah Helmstetter and Tommy Block prosecuted the case.