Category: What’s New

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

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

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

Click here to read about the trial.

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

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

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

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

She asked that Gary received the maximum punishment.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

June 17, 8:15 p.m.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Insanity Defense

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Week roundup: In unrelated child sex abuse cases, Kenner man gets 30-year sentence, Metairie man convicted

One man was sentenced to prison and another was convicted on Thursday (June 12) for sexually abusing children in unrelated cases filed in Jefferson Parish’s 24th Judicial District Court.

 

Oscar Reyes

Oscar Reyes, 63, of Kenner, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for his conviction of sexually abusing a 9-year-old child.

Reyes was convicted by a jury on May 15 of sexual battery of a juvenile under age 13 and indecent behavior with a juvenile under age 13. Reyes was not a stranger to the child.

The victim’s mother reported the abuse to the Kenner Police Department in September 2021, after her child disclosed Reyes’ abusive behavior when the child was between the ages of 7 and 9.

The victim further disclosed Reyes’ acts during a forensic medical examination at the Audrey Hepburn CARE Center at Children’s Hospital New Orleans (now named the Morgan Rae Center for Hope at Manning Family Children’s), and to a forensic interviewer at the Jefferson Children’s Advocacy Center. Kenner police arrested Reyes in October 2021.

Jurors deliberated for more than four hours before reaching their unanimous verdicts on May 15. Judge Danyelle Taylor sentenced Reyes to 30 years for the sexual battery charge and 10 years for the indecent behavior with a juvenile charge. Judge Taylor ran the sentences concurrently.

Assistant District Attorneys Cullen Kiker and Kristen Landrieu prosecuted the case.

 

Thomas L. Smith

Thomas L. Smith, 42, of Marrero, was convicted by a jury of sexual battery of a child under age 13 and indecent behavior with a juvenile under age 13. Smith was not a stranger to the child.

The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office opened its investigation on May 10, 2022, after receiving a call from West Jefferson Medical Center concerning allegations raised by a 12-year-old who said Smith had abused the child. The child’s mother sought medical attention after learning of the abuse.

The child underwent a forensic interview at the Jefferson Children’s Advocacy Center in May 2022, then a medical examination at the Audrey Hepburn CARE Center at Children’s Hospital New Orleans (now named the Morgan Rae Center for Hope at Manning Family Children’s) in October 2022. The child’s statements in both places were consistent with what was disclosed to a detective.

The detective obtained an arrest warrant on June 14, 2022. He was arrested on March 3. 2023.

Judge Shayna Beevers Morvant set sentencing for June 30.

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

Thomas Welty sentenced to 30 years for sexually abusing, trafficking teen girls

A Jefferson Parish judge on Thursday (June 12) sentenced Thomas Welty to 30 years in prison for his conviction of sexually abusing two teenaged girls, both of whom were given illegal narcotics so he could control them.

Welty, 46, a former Metairie resident, was convicted by a jury on May 27 of second-degree rape and trafficking children for sexual purposes involving one victim; and indecent behavior with a juvenile, contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile and sexual battery of the other victim.

Click here to read about the trial.

The crimes occurred between 2019 and 2021. Both victims were 15 years old when Welty began abusing them.

One of the victims, whose association with Welty lead to an addiction to methamphetamine and who was sexually abused not only by Welty but by two of his friends who have not been identified, provided a written victim-impact statement that was read aloud by Assistant District Attorney LaShanda Webb.

“I choose to forgive what you’ve done, but not for you,” the victim wrote. “I’m forgiving you for myself, because at the end of the day I need to heal – not you.

“I was so grateful to learn that every seven years, every cell in your entire body is being replaced,” she added. “And with that being said, how great is it to know that I will finally have a body you will have never touched.”

Judge Ellen Shirer Kovach of the 24th judicial District Court sentenced Welty to 30 years for second-degree rape, 30 years for trafficking children for sexual purposes, seven years for indecent behavior of juveniles, 10 years for contributing to the delinquency of juveniles and 10 years for sexual battery.

She ran the sentences concurrently. Additionally, she issued a stay-away order prohibiting any contact with the victims that is in effect for 100 years, and she ordered that he register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

After announcing the sentences, Judge Kovach addressed the two victims, telling them that they “testified extremely creditably,” and that their “bravery impressed the court.”

“I just wanted to say you’re both incredibly strong women,” Judge Kovach told them.

Assistant District Attorneys Erich Cathey and LaShanda Webb prosecuted the case.

Larry Davis sentenced to 120 years in prison for armed robbery spree

A Jefferson Parish judge on Friday (May 30) sentenced Larry Davis to 120 years in prison for his conviction of robbing four people at three businesses in one day, including a drug store in Metairie and two discount retail stores on the West Bank. 

A jury on May 14 deliberated for 25 minutes in convicting Davis, 56, of New Orleans, as charged of four counts of armed robbery with a firearm, all of which occurred on March 28, 2019.  

Davis began the armed robbery spree just before 3:30 a.m., in the 1700 block of Veterans Memorial Boulevard in Metairie. Davis, his face mostly covered with a cloth and dressed in black clothing, entered the drug store armed with a small, silver semiautomatic pistol.  

He robbed the cashier of money in the register and a customer of his credit card as he was attempting to pay for his items. Davis ran out of the store with the register till and fled in a white pickup truck. 

About six hours later, at 9:25 a.m., Davis entered a discount retail store in the 8900 block of the Westbank Expressway in Bridge City, wearing all black clothing. He asked the cashier for cigarettes. As she turned with the cigarettes, Davis brandished a small, silver semiautomatic pistol and demanded money. He fled with the register till in a white pickup truck. 

Just over 10 hours later, at 7:40 p.m., Davis, again wearing dark clothing, entered a discount retail store in the 3800 block of U.S. 90 in Avondale. He asked the cashier for a pack of cigarettes and then brandished a small, silver semiautomatic pistol. And again, he fled in a white pickup truck.  

Even before the third robbery occurred, Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office detectives had Davis’s and the getaway driver Israel Johnathan Freeman’s names as their suspects, after their fingerprints were lifted from the register till taken in the Metairie armed robbery. An off-duty Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office deputy happened to find that till in the street about a mile from the drug store. The Sheriff’s Office also advised deputies to be on the lookout for the white Chevrolet Colorado pickup truck. 

Less than an hour after the third robbery, a deputy who was working an off-duty detail in the Avondale area – and who also was involved in the investigation of the day’s second robbery — spotted the suspect white pickup truck. That deputy attempted to stop the pickup and called for assistance. 

The robbers led deputies and detectives in a pursuit across the Huey P. Long Bridge, traveling at more than 90 mph. The deputies lost sight of the robbers at Clearview Parkway and Airline Drive. Moments later, a citizen called 911, reporting that the pickup was abandoned at North Woodlawn Avenue and Flamingo Street. During the canvas of that area, a detective caught Davis in the 100 block of Houma Boulevard.  

Davis’s trial began on May 12. He was in court during the first day, but he refused to leave the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna to attend the remainder of his 3-day trial. 

On Friday, Judge Ray Steib of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced Davis to 30 years in prison for each of the four armed robbery counts. Each count includes a 5-year firearm enhancement, because Davis was armed with the pistol in robbing the four victims. 

Freeman, 35, of New Orleans, who is Davis’s co-defendant, eluded deputies during the day of the robberies and was arrested in Centerville, Miss., on April 10, 2019. He pleaded guilty as charged in September 2019 before Judge Steib. Freeman received a 15-year sentence. 

Assistant District Attorneys Theresa King and Brendan Bowen prosecuted the case. 

Elgene Gary Sr., Grand Isle politico and ex-cop, convicted of molesting 2 girls on the barrier island

A Jefferson Parish jury on Thursday night (May 29) found Elgene Gary Sr. guilty of molesting two juveniles on Grand Isle, including a woman he abused when she was a child almost four decades ago.

Gary, 81, a former elected member of the Grand Isle town council, a former member of its police department and a former member of the Grand Isle Port Commission, was convicted as charged of three counts of sexual battery. In addition to hearing testimony from the two victims, jurors heard from a woman who said he abused her as a child in Michigan more than three decades ago.

“Elgene Gary’s decades of deviant destruction are over,” Assistant District Attorney Erich Cathey told jurors in closing argument Thursday in urging them to find the defendant guilty.

Two of the sexual battery charges for which Gary was convicted involve the same victim, one for before she was 13 years of age and one after her 13th birthday (under Louisiana law, abusing a victim under age 13 carries more severe penalties).

That victim initially confided in her childhood best friend, who encouraged her to report it. That led her to then tell a caretaker.

She felt safe to report the abuse to law enforcement only after she was forced to leave Grand Isle when Hurricane Ida devastated the barrier island in August 2021. She reported it in Baton Rouge to the Louisiana State Police, whose Special Victims Unit opened the investigation in October 2021.

Then aged 16, the victim disclosed that Gary molested her beginning when she was 7 years old and continued to do so until she was 15. He told her to “be quiet,” and “this is our secret” as he abused her. When she resisted, he’d tell her, “Don’t you love me?” At times, she hid when Gary was near.

She underwent forensic interviews at the Audrey Hepburn CARE Center at Children’s Hospital New Orleans (renamed the Morgan Rae Center for Hope at Manning Family Children’s hospital), and the Children’s Advocacy Services in Denham Springs.

The State Police investigation led to a 40-year-old woman coming forward in January 2022. She disclosed that Gary molested her on one occasion when she was between the ages of 7 and 10, between 1988 and 1991. Gary stopped only because her brother woke up. For that, Gary was convicted of the third count of sexual battery.

Jurors also heard testimony from a woman who said Gary abused her in Michigan in 1993, when she was 10 years old. Gary was visiting Michigan on a hunting trip at the time. Gary has not been charged in Michigan. Her testimony was allowed to be presented to the Jefferson Parish jury to show Gary’s lustful disposition toward children.

“They deserved to be believed, and they deserve justice,” Assistant District Attorney Brooke Harris told jurors Thursday in closing argument.

Gary denied the charges. His attorney argued that the state’s witnesses gave inconsistent testimony. The attorney also told jurors that detectives did not thoroughly investigate the accusations.

Rebutting the defense argument, Assistant DA Cathey told jurors that any perceived inconsistencies were “minor.” The victims “were consistent each and every time on what this man, Elgene Gary Sr., did to both of them,” he said.

The jury deliberated just over five hours to find Gary guilty of all three charges.

Judge Ellen Shirer Kovach of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Gary on June 16.

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

 

Monica Every, Louis Gordon sentenced to life in prison in murder-for-hire killing

A Jefferson Parish judge on Thursday (May 29) sentenced Monica Every and Louis Gordon to life in prison for their convictions of killing Every’s ex-boyfriend’s new lover.

A jury on April 17 found Every, 52, of LaPlace, guilty as charged of being a principle to second-degree murder, conspiracy to commit second-degree murder and solicitation for second-degree murder for her role in the death of Charlene Jones, 48.

That same jury found the hired gunman, Gordon, 37, of New Orleans, guilty of second-degree murder, conspiracy to commit second-degree murder, of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm and obstruction of justice.

Click here to read about the trial.

Jones was romantically involved with Every’s ex-boyfriend, who ended their relationship on Christmas 2021. Following the break-up, Every, driven by jealousy, undertook a campaign of harassment to end the new relationship, including anonymously calling Crimestoppers to falsely claim that Jones was in possession of a pistol used in a New Orleans East homicide.

Finally, Every paid Gordon $10,000 to kill Jones, an act he carried out on the morning of Jan. 27, 2022. He shot her three times outside her Metairie apartment, as she prepared to drive to her job.

“You got my mother murdered because you couldn’t handle being unwanted,” one of Jones’ daughters told Every in victim-impact testimony during Thursday’s sentencing hearing. “You were obsessed with (her ex). Obsessed with a man who really didn’t want you. When you saw him move on, when you saw him choose Charlene Jones, a real woman, a woman with strength, love and light, you lost your mind.”

Said another one of Jones’ daughters: “You may have thought your actions would silence my mother forever, but they didn’t. Her strength flows through every tear I cry, every breath I take and every word I speak right now. Now she’s gone, and the pain is unbearable.”

Life in prison without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence is the mandatory punishment for second-degree murder in Louisiana. It was a sentence that both Every and Gordon received from Judge R. Christopher Cox III of the 24th Judicial District Court, who presided over the 9-day trial.

Judge Cox additionally sentenced Every to 30 years for conspiracy to commit second-degree murder and 20 years for solicitation for second-degree murder, the maximum for both crimes. Judge Cox ran the sentences concurrently.

As for Gordon, Judge Cox sentenced him to 30 years for conspiracy to commit second-degree murder, 20 years for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm and 40 years for obstruction of justice – again, the maximum for each crime. Judge Cox ran the obstruction count consecutively with the life sentence.

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

Thomas Welty guilty of drugging, sexually abusing, trafficking teen girls

A Jefferson Parish jury on Tuesday evening (May 20) found Thomas Welty guilty of sexually abusing two teenage girls after giving them illegal narcotics.

Welty, 46, formerly of Metairie, was convicted as charged of second-degree rape and trafficking of children for sexual purposes involving one victim; and, of indecent behavior with a juvenile, contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile and sexual battery involving the other victim.

Both victims were aged 15 when Welty began abusing them between 2019 and 2021. Welty provided highly addictive methamphetamine to one of the victims and the “date rape” drug GHB to the other.

“He used narcotics as a mechanism for control,” Assistant District Attorney Erich Cathey told jurors in closing argument Tuesday. “He used methamphetamine and GHB to control his victims.”

Welty began abusing one of the victims during 2019 Carnival season, when he provided her with alcohol in the French Quarter, leading her to pass out. He brought her to his home in Metairie, where he injected her with methamphetamine – her first experience with the narcotic. After raping her, Welty allowed two drug-dealing associates to do the same in exchange for narcotics (they have never been identified).

The victim developed an addiction to methamphetamine, which he provided to her as he continued to rape her. The victim’s grandmother learned of Welty and notified the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office in July 2020, when she was 16 years old. The victim also disclosed the abuse later that year to a school counselor, who in turn notified the school resource officer. The victim went into rehabilitation to beat the addiction.

Welty gave GHB to the other victim in July 2020. The victim passed out. When she regained consciousness, she was in the shower with Welty. She rebuffed his sexual advances and departed the following morning. She had been acquainted with Welty since January 2019.

“Welty was grooming her,” Assistant District Attorney LaShanda Webb told jurors Tuesday. Groomers, she said, “are strategically taking their time to study who they want to attack.”

In testimony Tuesday, Welty denied the charges, although he admitted to sexual activity with the first victim. But he accused her of lying about her age. With the second victim, he told jurors he found her in his bed, and she had vomited. He carried her to the bathroom and left her there. His attorney told jurors that there is no physical evidence. Welty has three convictions of possession of ketamine and possession with intent to distribute ketamine, jurors heard.

Jurors who were selected on Thursday deliberated for three hours before returning with their verdicts.

Judge Ellen Shirer Kovach of the 24th Judicial District Court set sentencing for June 12.

Assistant District Attorneys Erich Cathey and LaShanda Webb prosecuted the case.

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.