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 24^th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Stevenson on Thursday (Oct. 8).

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