Category: What’s New

Juvenile Diversion’s restorative justice ‘largely positive,’ facilitator says

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 Lauren Trout (center), restorative justice facilitator for the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office and Jefferson Parish Public School System, discusses the program for an audience gathered in New Orleans for “Rethink Discipline.” At the left is Kimbrielle Boult, a student, and at right is Lynette Adams of the Louisiana Supreme Court.  (JPDA photo)

Although concrete data is not yet available, the restorative justice approach to resolving disputes among participants in the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office Pre-Trial Juvenile Diversion program is seeing successes, a program facilitator says.

During its first year of use in Juvenile Diversion, about 260 people have voluntarily used the restorative justice process as a means of resolving conflicts and undoing the harm the youths’ behavior caused, said Lauren Trout, a restorative practices facilitator working for the District Attorney’s Office and the Jefferson Parish Public School System.

“The outcomes and responses have been largely positive,” Trout told about 50 educators, school administrators, students and representatives of community groups from as far as Jackson, Miss., who are gathering in New Orleans this week for a regional conference called “Rethink Discipline.” Trout was among the speakers on Tuesday (June 7).

The participants convened to discuss and share ideas on finding alternatives to suspending or expelling students who cause disciplinary problems in public schools. Restorative justice, one of this week’s topics, is a method school officials began using nationwide during the past decade, as a means of trying to keep youths in school and out of criminal justice systems.

Trout is helping bring restorative practices to Jefferson Parish’s 81 public schools. Through restorative practices, the youths who cause the problem must confront their behaviors by sitting face-to-face with the people they’ve harmed in what’s called “talking circles.”

And in the schools setting, the often-used means of meting discipline, through expulsions, suspensions and even arrests, doesn’t solve the underlying problems. “We know suspending and expelling young people doesn’t resolve the conflict,” Trout said, as the offending youths eventually return to the classrooms.

The Jefferson Parish DA’s Office and public school system began working together during the 2014-2015 academic year through a cooperative endeavor to bring restorative practices to the schools. Jefferson’s program, along with those in Caddo and Orleans parishes, is funded the program with U.S. Education Department School Climate Transformation Grants.

Jefferson Parish Juvenile Court judges began looking at restorative justice in 2011, through its Families in Need of Services program. Over time, District Attorney Paul D. Connick Jr., authorized his office to implement the program through the Pre-Trial Juvenile Diversion Program, using grant money from the Baptist Community Ministries Foundation.

In Juvenile Diversion, restorative justice is used in cases involving fights, thefts from persons, property destruction, assaults and batteries. Youths involved with narcotics, inter-family incidents and thefts from the large chain stores aren’t allowed access to restorative justice.

Jefferson Parish’s youths were only able to access restorative justice after they entered the juvenile criminal justice system, Trout said. That’s why the program was extended to the public schools through the collaboration with the DA’s office, she said.

She said she’s seen successes and barriers to implementing the program in the public schools in its first year. “Real change, and systemic change in particular, is really slow,” she said of the barriers. “It takes time to work efficiently across so many systems.”

She sees the collaboration between the school system and criminal justice system as a success, and restorative practices is now in the school system’s disciplinary policies handbook.

While concrete data isn’t available, Trout cited as an example of success a public school, which she did not identify, that had a high rate of arrests among its students. The school then included on its staff a part-time restorative practices facilitator.

“There has definitely been a reduction in out-of-school suspensions,” Trout told the audience.


Educators, school administrators, students and community groups representatives from Louisiana and parts of Mississippi are gathering in New Orleans this week for “Rethink Discipline,” a conference designed to address means of disciplining youths other than suspending them, expelling them or even jailing them. Speakers include Lauren Trout, a restorative practices facilitator working for the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office and the Jefferson Parish Public Schools System. Among those attending on Tuesday was Erin Valls, project grant manager for the Jefferson Parish Public School System. (JPDA Photos)

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Marrero man sentenced to 10 years for possession of child pornography

A Marrero man was sentenced to 10 years in prison after he pleaded guilty on Monday (June 6), to one count of possession of pornography depicting juveniles under the age of 13.

Sean A. Byers, 26, who lived in Westwego at the time of his arrest, appeared before Judge Lee Faulkner of the 24th Judicial District Court to enter the plea reached pursuant to negotiations.

Byers must serve the sentence without the benefit of probation, parole or suspended sentence. He also must register as a sex offender for 25 years starting with the day he’s released from prison, Judge Faulkner said.

He was arrested Aug. 6, 2015, after the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office and U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents served a search warrant of his residence at the time in the 400 block of Celotex Parkway.

Sheriff’s Office Detective Nick Vega had opened the investigation a month earlier, as part of an ongoing undercover search of people engaged in the distribution and possession of child pornography on the internet. Byers shared with the detective three videos depicting prepubescent girls engaged in sexual activities with adult males, according to the arrest affidavit.

During the search of Byers’ home, police found a flash drive containing those three videos in addition to 16 other images and videos depicting child pornography, according to the arrest affidavit. Byers confessed he downloaded the videos and images.

Byers posted a $10,000 commercial bond two months after his arrest, records show. He surrendered to authorities on Monday to begin his sentence.

Assistant District Attorney Michael Smith prosecuted the case.

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Metairie man sentenced to 30 years in prison for sexual battery of young girl

A former Metairie resident was sentenced on Monday (June 6) to 30 years in prison for the sexual battery of a girl.

Alejandro Bravo, 45, was convicted last month of inappropriately touching the child on at least three occasions, the last of which occurred on March 9, 2013, when she was 7 years old.

The child was visiting her step-grandmother’s home on Severn Avenue, when Bravo touched her as she sat on his lap. The child spoke out, leading her step-grandmother to call her own mother before alerting the victim’s parents, who in turn notified the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, according to testimony during last month’s trial.

The child testified during the trial that Bravo touched her three times, and that she did not understand that his behavior was wrong until police were notified.

“You made my daughter a victim, but my daughter refuses that label,” the girl’s mother said in an impact testimony letter that a prosecutor read aloud in court on Monday.

After the Sheriff’s Office initiated its investigation and obtained an arrest warrant, Bravo vanished. He was arrested two years later in Minnesota and was extradited to Jefferson Parish to face charges, according to testimony. He testified during the trial that the child “obviously” was lying.

Sexual battery involving a juvenile under age 13 carries a sentence of 25 years to 99 years in prison. Judge Lee Faulkner of the 24th Judicial District Court, who denied Bravo’s attorney’s request for a new trial last week, cited Bravo’s being a middle-age man in handing down the sentence without probation, parole or suspended sentence.

Judge Faulkner also ordered that Bravo register as a sex offender for the rest of his life from the day he’s released from prison. The registration must be updated every six months, the judge told Bravo.

Assistant District Attorneys Lindsay Truhe and Michael Smith prosecuted the case.

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Third defendant in auto theft racketeering case pleads guilty

A New Orleans man was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Thursday (June 2), after he pleaded guilty to his role in an alleged auto theft ring that accounted for almost one-third of vehicle thefts in Jefferson Parish during a two-year period.

Jason Mercadel’s guilty plea brings to three the number of people who’ve admitted to being part the alleged ring. The thefts caused a net loss to the community valued at more than $2.5 million in 2014 and 2015, according to the bill of indictment a state grand jury handed up on May 5.

Mercadel, 38, pleaded guilty as charged to racketeering, conspiracy to commit theft and 11 counts of theft. As part of the negotiated plea agreement, prosecutors dismissed a charge of altering or removing a vehicle identification number.

Mercadel, also known as Jason Mercadal, is one of 13 people who were charged by a grand jury on May 5. According to the indictment, Mercadel both facilitated auto thefts and directly participated in the thefts. He was charged with designating vehicles to be stolen, transported others to steal the vehicles and stealing them himself.

Vehicles, primarily pickup trucks, allegedly were stolen for several reasons. In some cases, enterprise members allegedly transferred vehicle identification numbers from wrecked inoperable or salvaged trucks with little or no value that were legally purchased to vehicles that were stolen.

In other instances, enterprise members allegedly stole vehicles for parts. The stolen vehicles were sold for scrap based on the weight or simply abandoned, according to the indictment.

Judge Adrian Adams of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced Mercadel to 15 years for racketeering, 15 years for conspiracy, five years for each of the nine counts of theft of vehicles valued at between $5,000 and $25,000, and five years for each of two counts of theft of vehicles valued at between $750 and $5,000. The sentences were run concurrently.

Mercadel also pleaded guilty to being a repeat offender under Louisiana’s habitual offender law for a previous conviction of conspiracy to commit theft over $25,000. He received a 15-year sentence for as a second felony offender, which was run concurrently with the other sentences he received on Thursday.

On May 20, another of the 13 indicted people, Jimmie “Black” James, 28, of New Orleans, pleaded guilty to racketeering, conspiracy to commit auto theft, seven counts of theft and one count of altering a vehicle identification number. His sentencing is set for September.

Another man, Brandon Lane, 29, of Marrero, was charged separately last year in connection with the same auto theft ring. He pleaded guilty on March 18 to racketeering, conspiracy to commit auto theft, 17 counts of theft and illegal possession of stolen things. Lane was sentenced to 10 years as a second felony offender.

Others named in the May 5 indictment are Parrish Norris, 41; Oliver D. Green, 46; Patrick N. Robinson III, 28; Patrick N. Robinson Jr., 49; Cardell E. Torrence, 39; Ronnel A. Kyles, 29; Kevin A. Martin, 29; Brandon P. Evans, 30; Keith A. Nero, 29; Shon R. Claiborne, 27; and Ronald J. Johnson, 29.

The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office Auto Theft Unit and the Louisiana State Police handled the investigation.

Assistant District Attorneys Doug Freese, Lindsay Truhe and Thomas Sanderson are prosecuting the cases.

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River Ridge man who tried to carjack deputy pleads guilty

A River Ridge man who tried to carjack an undercover Jefferson Parish detective was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Thursday (June 2), after he pleaded guilty to that crime and to possession with intent to distribute cocaine for the crack rocks that deputies found stashed between his buttocks.

Jonas Kelly, 33, also pleaded guilty to being a double offender under Louisiana’s habitual offender law, because of a 2006 burglary conviction. Judge Stephen Grefer of the 24th Judicial District Court, who accepted the guilty pleas, ran the sentences concurrently for a total of 15 years.

Kelly pleaded guilty to attempted carjacking and possession with intent to distribute cocaine. The latter offense stems from the 11 rocks of crack cocaine deputies found hidden between his buttock cheeks after he was arrested for the carjacking attempt.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office Detective Patrick Evans was dressed in plain clothing and in a black Ford Mustang parked near Wilker Neal and Newton streets in River Ridge, conducting patrol operations in the high-crime area, when Kelly approached him about 10 p.m., according to the arrest affidavit.

Kelly approached the passenger’s side and pulled on the door handle with his left hand while holding his right hand behind his back in implying that he had a weapon, according to the affidavit. Kelly told the detective to “open the door.”

Evans asked the suspect what he wanted, and Kelly responded by saying he wanted the car. Evans then pulled his pistol out, leading Kelly to back away. Kelly then walked into a crowd of people, and Evans called for assistance of other deputies, who arrested the suspect.

During the search on the scene, the deputies found the crack cocaine that later was weighed at 1.9 grams. The deputies also found $61 in cash in denominations consistent with narcotics sales.

Kelly was scheduled to stand trial on the two charges on Thursday. A panel of potential jurors was lined up outside Judge Grefer’s courtroom, waiting to being jury selection when deputies escorted the people away.

Kelly then pleaded guilty. He entered both pleas under North Carolina vs. Alford, named for a 1970 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Kelly refused to admit that he was in fact guilty but that he was pleading guilty because the prosecutors had sufficient evidence to prove the charges at trial.

In comments to the judge, Kelly denied trying to carjack the deputy. But he said the crack cocaine was his.

Prosecutors filed the double bill on the attempted carjacking charge, citing the 2006 burglary conviction for which he was sentenced to eight years in prison.

In that case, he burglarized a Newton Street apartment just three blocks from where he attempted to carjack the detective. He also pleaded guilty in that case to possession with intent to distribute cocaine and two counts of witness intimidation.

At the time of his arrest for the attempted carjacking, he was on probation for his 2012 conviction of possession of alprazolam. On March 21, he stipulated he violated his probation because of the latest case, and the original sentence of four years in prison was imposed. That sentence is run concurrently with the 15-year sentence he received on Thursday.

Assistant District Attorneys Matt Clauss and Thomas Sanderson prosecuted the case.

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Gretna man who claimed false confession convicted of forcibly raping teenage girl

A Gretna man who testified during his trial that the “high-grade marijuana” he smoked moments before meeting with a detective was among the reasons he falsely confessed to raping a teenage girl was convicted on Friday (May 27) of sexually abusing the victim.

Omar Duplessis, 31, faces five years to 40 years in prison for his conviction of forcible rape. He was found guilty of raping the teen beginning when she was 13 and ending the on day before Thanksgiving in 2014, when she was 16. The victim, now 17, testified that Duplessis used force when he raped her numerous times.

Judge Henry Sullivan of the 24th Judicial District Court rendered the verdict, because Duplessis waived a trial by jury. “The court finds the State of Louisiana has carried its burden,” Judge Sullivan said in announcing the verdict immediately following closing arguments. “The court finds Omar Duplessis guilty as charged of forcible rape.”

Duplessis, who had awaited trial while free on a $100,000 bond, was remanded to the parish jail until his sentencing hearing on June 16.

The girl’s mother, whose name is being withheld to protect the victim’s identity, pleaded guilty on Feb. 25 to failure to report the commission of certain felonies, meaning the rape. She received two years of active probation, because she did not disclose to authorities that Duplessis sexually abused her daughter. She and her mother – the victim’s grandmother – testified for the defense.

The victim twice told her mother about the abuse, but the mother did nothing, according to testimony. The victim then disclosed the abuse to her uncle on Dec. 2, 2014, the uncle testified. Police were notified, and Duplessis was arrested the same day.

Duplessis initially denied the charge, telling Gretna Police Department Detective Jerry Broome that the girl falsely accused him of rape out of resentment. However, in subsequent interviews that were videotaped, Duplessis confessed to Broome that he had had sex with the girl.

In his second statement, he told the detective that he was “drunk and stoned,” and watching television in his bed when the girl got into bed with him, disrobed and “kind of” had sex. He said he told the girl to stop and leave. He said it was the only time it happened, and he denied the girl’s accusations that they’d had sex before.

He opened his third recorded statement saying, “I’m hurting, and my life is over,” he told the detective. “This hasn’t been the first time,” he confessed. “At least four times, maybe five, maybe, like once every – I don’t know.”

Duplessis testified on Friday that he was at his job as a longshoreman on New Orleans’ riverfront when he learned of the accusations against him. He said he did not immediately go to police but used marijuana beforehand to help him relax.

“I smoked a blunt of some high-grade marijuana,” he testified under cross-examination. He blamed the marijuana, long work hours during the days preceding the police interview and Broome for what he asserted was a false confession.

The victim disclosed the rapes at the Jefferson Children’s Advocacy Center and to Dr. Jamie Jackson, an expert in child sexual abuse pediatrics at the Audrey Hepburn Children at Risk Evaluation (CARE) Center at Children’s Hospital. “She actually talked about trying to fight, about being pinned down,” Jackson testified.

The victim testified she was 13 when the first rape happened, after school and when she was home alone with Duplessis. The rape happened frequently, she said. “Sometimes it happened at night. Sometimes it happened during the day,” she testified.

Assistant District Attorneys Rhonda Goode-Douglas and Marko Marjanovic prosecuted the case.

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Jury rejects Avondale man’s claim of being framed, convicts him of drug and gun charges

Westley Simmons told jurors that Jefferson Parish deputies framed him as payback for a 2007 crime in New Orleans, where he shot a rifle at a police officer. “They put crack on me, heroin on me and a gun they got out the back,” he testified of his Nov. 15, 2014 arrest in an apartment in Harvey’s Tallow Tree neighborhood.

The Jefferson Parish jury deliberated about 3 1/2 hours on Wednesday night (May 25), finding Simmons guilty as charged of possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine, possession of cocaine, possession of heroin, possession of tramadol without a prescription and of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.

Simmons, 26, of Avondale, who declined a pretrial offer this week to plead guilty in exchange for a 10-year sentence as a double offender, will be sentenced on June 17 by 24th Judicial District Court Judge Ray Steib.

He faces 10 years to 20 years for the firearm charge, two to 30 years for possession with intent to distribute cocaine, four to 10 years for each of the cocaine and heroin possession counts and up to five years for the tramadol.

He was barred by law from possessing guns because of his 2007 conviction in New Orleans Criminal District Court of aggravated assault on a peace officer with a firearm. He additionally had convictions of resisting arrest in 2007 and attempted convicted felon in possession of a firearm in 2009.

Wednesday’s conviction stems from his arrest in an apartment in the 1100 Orange Blossom Lane. Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies had gotten an alert through a license plate recognition camera of a stolen Ford Explorer in the area and investigated.

The vehicle was parked in front of the apartment, where a man exited and told deputies that the man who drove the vehicle was inside. The deputies went to the front door, which was not completely closed, and knocked. They smelled marijuana smoke and entered, according to testimony.

They saw Simmons standing in the kitchen. Simmons saw the uniformed deputies and tried to run out of the back door, Deputy Chad Gagnon testified. “Once he saw that, he had the deer-in-the-headlights look,” Gagnon testified.

A locked security bar prevented Simmons from getting out of the back door. Deputy Blake Hollifield testified that Simmons resisted, and the deputy noted a hard object in the suspect’s pants waistband. It was a loaded semiautomatic pistol with a round in the chamber, meaning it was ready to be fired, Hollifield said.

The deputies found in Simmons’ pockets two grams of heroin and 5.5 grams of crack cocaine, wrapped in individual pieces, along with a half-gram of power cocaine and five tramadol pills. The deputies also found a digital scale and a cigar roller in his pockets, along with the key to the stolen vehicle.

A second man, Randy Owens, 32, of Algiers, also was arrested in the apartment. He pleaded guilty on April 27 to possession with intent to distribute marijuana and attempted possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Steib suspended a five-year prison sentence and ordered Owens to serve five years of probation.

Assistant District Attorneys Angad Ghai and Blair Constant prosecuted the case.

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Child sexual predator convicted of failing to register as sex offender

An admitted child sexual predator who molested a prepubescent girl in the 1980s and later wrote journal entries in prison detailing how to kidnap, rape and murder children has been convicted a second time of failing to register as a sex offender.

Tommy Mouton, 62, a former Bridge City resident, faces five years to 20 years in prison. The Jefferson Parish jury that was seated on Tuesday deliberated approximately 15 minutes in the evening before finding Mouton guilty as charged. Judge Donnie Rowan of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to hand down the punishment on June 20.

Mouton failed to alert the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office or any other law enforcement agency of his residency after he was released from prison last year for his first conviction of failing to register as a sex offender.

Mouton finished that five-year sentence on Feb. 12, 2015, and informed the state Department of Corrections that he planned reside in the 200 block of 8th Street in Bridge City. A warrant was issued for his arrest after he failed to register again.

Fifteen days after he was released from prison, police found Mouton in New Orleans, with unused condoms and a bottle of lubricant in his pockets, authorities have said. As a result of his absconding, prosecutors succeeded last year in persuading a 24th Judicial District Court commissioner to order that Mouton be held in jail without bond until his trial.

Mouton pleaded guilty in state court in Jefferson Parish in 1990 to sexual battery, aggravated oral sexual battery and indecent behavior with a juvenile. He admitted he molested a girl over a 21-month period beginning in 1986, when she was six years old.

While serving his 10-year sentence for that crime, corrections officers found in his cell his journal with entries detailing child abuse and drawings of young girls being sexually tortured. Those images led to his conviction in Claiborne Parish to possession of child pornography.

He was released from prison in 2008, but he later failed to register as a sex offender. A Jefferson Parish jury convicted him of that crime in 2010, and Judge Rowan, who presided over that case, too, sentenced him to five years in prison.

Before his release, he was evaluated by a state Sex Offender Assessment Panel, or SOAP, which seeks to determine whether certain inmates pose danger to society.

Mouton shortcut the process by admitting he is a child sexual predator. As such, he was ordered to wear a GPS monitor and register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. He was required by law to register as a sex offender within three business days after his release from prison.

He failed to do so, and 15 days after he walked out of prison, members of a U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force found him on a sidewalk near the 1800 block of Gravier Street in New Orleans, according to testimony.

Mouton, a U.S. Army veteran, was in downtown New Orleans because of an appointment with nearby the U.S. Veterans Administration hospital, according to testimony. He asserted that when released from Dixon Correctional Institute in Jackson, La., he rode a bus to New Orleans, where he was homeless and had little money.

Assistant District Attorneys Matt Clauss and Andrew DeCoste prosecuted the case.

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Kenner man, 66, pleads guilty to battering and shooting shotgun at wife

A 66-year-old Kenner man was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Monday (May 23), after he pleaded guilty to committing a battery on his wife during a domestic dispute and then firing a shotgun at her as she ran from their home.

On the day he was scheduled to stand trial, Charles Gussett pleaded guilty as charged to illegal use of a firearm, use of a firearm during a crime of violence and domestic abuse battery, a misdemeanor. He received 10 years for each of the felonies and six months for the misdemeanor, all run concurrently.

Once he’s released from prison, he’ll be barred from being near his wife, 24th Judicial District Judge June Darensburg said in issuing the permanent stay-away order. “It’s permanent, for the rest of your life, her life,” Darensburg told Gussett.

The crimes happened on Oct. 25, 2013, in the couple’s home in the 2100 block of Iowa Avenue, according to the Kenner Police Department. His wife of two years, a community college student who also held down a job, was doing her homework on her laptop computer after she got off work when Gussett asked her about what they’d have for dinner.

An argument followed when she told Gussett she had no dinner plans. He closed her laptop computer, preventing her from continuing her work, and then grabbed her by her neck – committing the domestic abuse battery.

As she ran out of the home, Gussett grabbed a 12-gauge single-barrel shotgun and attempted to fire it at her. The gun did not discharge. That act is the basis for the use of a firearm during a crime of violence charge, with underlying offense being an aggravated assault.

After the gun didn’t fire, she ran. He then discharged the shotgun, committing the illegal use of a firearm. His wife was not injured, but the pellets struck a nearby vehicle and the door of a neighboring house.

He fled but was arrested two days later, after returning to the residence, police said. He has been jailed since then.

Assistant District Attorneys Kellie Rish and Molly Massey prosecuted the case.

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New Orleans man pleads guilty in auto theft racketeering case

Two weeks after he was named in a racketeering indictment charging 13 people in a sweeping car theft ring, an eastern New Orleans man pleaded guilty on Friday (May 20) to his role in an enterprise that the indictment alleges to be responsible for almost one-third of the stolen vehicles in Jefferson Parish in recent years.

Jimmie “Black” James, 28, pleaded guilty as charged to racketeering, conspiracy to commit theft, seven counts of theft and one count of altering a motor vehicle identification number. Judge Adrian Adams of the 24th Judicial District Court, who accepted the plea, deferred the sentencing, which is set for the week of Sept. 19.

James and 12 other men are named in a 34-count indictment that a Jefferson Parish grand jury handed up on May 5. According to the indictment, the men were responsible for an estimated 32 percent of Jefferson Parish’s auto thefts in 2014 and 2015, amounting to losses exceeding $2.5 million.

According to the indictment, James’ role in the criminal enterprise involved defeating vehicles’ door locks and ignitions and delivering the stolen vehicles to other members of the enterprise. His expertise was in stealing and tagging diesel trucks, according to the indictment.

James pleaded guilty to stealing a 2005 GMC Yukon XL on April 13, 2015; a 2006 Ford F250 on April 16, 2015; a 2003 GMC Yukon on April 23, 2015; a 2006 Chevrolet 1500 on May 4, 2015; a 2005 Chevrolet Silverado on June 10, 2015; a Chevrolet Silverado on June 11, 2015; and a Chevrolet Silverado on May 2, 2014.

He also pleaded guilty to possessing a Chevrolet 2500 whose vehicle identification number had been altered in order to conceal the truck’s identity.

Others named in the indictment are Parrish Norris, 41; Jason A. Mercadel, 38; Oliver D. Green, 46; Patrick N. Robinson III, 28; Patrick N. Robinson Jr., 49; Cardell E. Torrence, 39; Ronnel A. Kyles, 29; Kevin A. Martin, 29; Brandon P. Evans, 30; Keith A. Nero, 29; Shon R. Claiborne, 27; and Ronald J. Johnson, 29.

The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office Auto Theft Unit and the Louisiana State Police handled the investigation.

Assistant District Attorneys Doug Freese, Lindsay Truhe and Thomas Sanderson are prosecuting the cases.

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