A Metairie man was sentenced on Thursday (Sept. 22) to the maximum 10-year sentence allowable under state law for his conviction of causing injuries to his 4-month-old daughter that included a fractured skull and broken bones.

Chase King, 38, was convicted as charged by a petit jury last week of cruelty to a juvenile, for the broken femur, broken wrist, fractured skull and other injuries that the infant received while under her father’s care in the efficiency apartment in the 2300 block of Pasadena Avenue they shared with the baby’s mother.

Indicating he would have handed down a stronger sentence if he could, Judge Scott Schlegel of the 24^th Judicial District Court noted that King is “an intelligent man” whose only admission in the case was that he slapped his daughter in face only once. King had no explanation for the serious injuries he was convicted of causing.

“At some point, you’re going to have to admit what you did,” Judge Schlegel told King, who holds a master’s degree in education. “You are hereby remanded” to state prison to begin the sentence.

A Children’s Hospital doctor in New Orleans notified the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office on July 15, 2015, after noticing the baby had the injuries. King admitted to slapping the baby once and then calling his wife at her work to tell her “I just clobbered the kid,” he told the case detective during the interrogation.

His defense team cited King’s cerebral palsy, which affected his motor skills, as an explanation for what could have caused the accidental injuries. On Thursday, his attorney asked for leniency, saying King had no criminal record and no longer lives with his daughter and so isn’t a threat to her or anyone else. The defense requested probation, in part because of his medical condition.

Judge Schlegel rejected the leniency request, noting that the infant’s femur was completely broken into two and the wrist had a radial fracture, injuries incurred days before the baby’s parents brought her to the hospital.

The judge noted the cerebral palsy wasn’t to blame for the baby’s injuries. “This has to do with your intentional act, when you ‘clobbered’ your child,” Judge Schlegel told him.

King’s wife, Judith King, 38, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of child abandonment on Jan. 15, for not going to her daughter’s aid after her husband called saying he “clobbered the kid.” She entered an Alford plea, in which she did not admit guilt but pleaded guilty in light of the evidence against her. Judge Schlegel deferred a prison sentence and ordered her to serve one year of active probation.

Assistant District Attorneys Rhonda Goode-Douglas and Marko Marjanovic prosecuted Mr. King.

A Marrero man was convicted as charged late Wednesday (Sept. 14), of molesting two girls in his home.

Ricky Gros, 51, was convicted of two counts of sexual battery of a juvenile under age 13, and of indecent behavior with a juvenile. The offenses occurred over a period of time beginning in 2006, when the victims were under the age of 10.

Gros was acquainted with the girls, both of whom were 7 years old when he first touched them inappropriately while they visited his James Drive home. One of the victims testified that Gros had both them sit on his lap while on his sofa, where he gave them bubble gum, and that he put his hand in their pants and touched them inappropriately.

The victims’ disclosure was delayed for more than one year after the last incident in 2009, until one of the girls told a family member. That victim’s mother, in turned, called the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office in October 2010, according to trial testimony.

After the investigation began, the mother and her daughter encountered Gros in public on three different occasions. At the time, the suspect was free from custody on bond. On one of those incidents, they ran into Gros at a grocery, when the mother noted her daughter’s reaction, the mother testified.

“She grabbed ahold of me and started shaking,” the mother testified. Her daughter said, “’He’s here, he’s here.’ I said, who?” The mother said she looked up and saw Gros standing in front of them.

According to the mother’s testimony, as a result of the abuse, the girl tried to commit suicide five times, was pulled out of school, sees a psychiatrist and is prescribed medication. “It’s been very hard for her to cope with life in general,” the mother testified.

Gros, who testified, denied abusing the girls, both of whom testified against him. He asserted it would have been physically impossible to touch the girls under the circumstances they described.

The Jefferson Parish jury returned with its verdict just before midnight Wednesday, finding Gros guilty of all three counts. At the time of the trial, Gros was free on bond but was remanded to the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna to await his sentencing.

He faces 25 years to life in prison for the sexual battery and two years to 25 years for the indecent behavior charge, in addition to a lifetime of sex offender registration if he is released.

Judge June Berry Darensburg of the 24^th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Gros on Oct. 12.

Assistant District Attorneys Josh Vanderhooft and Blair Constant prosecuted the case.

A Metairie man faces up to 10 years in prison for his conviction of causing injuries to his 4-month-old daughter that included a fractured skull and a broken wrist and leg.

Chase King, 38, was convicted as charged Wednesday night (Sept. 14) of cruelty to a juvenile, for the injuries that led a Children’s Hospital doctor to notify police on July 15, 2015. The offense involves the intentional or criminally negligent mistreatment or neglect that causes “unjustifiable pain or suffering” to a child, according to the statute.

King’s daughter had a blackened eye, bruising and a small cut on her face, a broken left femur and a broken right wrist. Prosecutors argued that the child’s skull was fractured days before she was brought to Children’s Hospital.

King, who suffers from cerebral palsy, was the child’s primary caregiver while his wife, Judith King, was at work. He told a detective during the interrogation that he cared for his daughter in the couple’s “cramped” efficiency apartment in the 2300 block of Pasadena Avenue.

He denied losing his temper with the child but admitted he slapped her “across the face” as she lay in her crib on the day before the baby was brought to the hospital. After striking her, he said he called his wife and said, “I just clobbered the kid,” he told Detective Kelly Kron of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office during the video-taped interrogation, which jurors saw.

Of the skull fracture, King speculated it happened accidentally when he lifted his daughter over his head, causing the child’s head to strike the ceiling. “She cried,” King told the detective. “We didn’t think anything of it.”

Of the broken wrist, King said the injury could have been caused as he pulled his daughter’s arm through a sleeve while dressing her.

As to what caused his daughter’s broken femur, he said, “I have no clue.”

King, who holds a master’s degree in educational ministry, expressed frustration over his struggle with cerebral palsy and being the primary caregiver in the small apartment, but he denied intentionally harming the child. His defense team suggested the injuries were the result of accidents caused, in part, by his cerebral palsy, which affected his motor skills.

Judge Scott Schlegel of the 24^th Judicial District Court scheduled King’s sentencing hearing for Sept. 22.

Judith King, 38, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of child abandonment on Jan. 15, for not going to her daughter’s aid after her husband called saying he “clobbered the kid.” She entered an Alford plea, in which she did not admit guilt but pleaded guilty in light of the evidence against her. Judge Schlegel deferred a prison sentence and ordered her to serve one year of active probation.

Assistant District Attorneys Rhonda Goode-Douglas and Marko Marjanovic prosecuted Mr. King.

A former Metairie resident faces up to 40 years in prison for raping a 14-year-old girl.

Marcus Harris, 40, was convicted as charged Friday night of the forcible rape of the teenager who was sexually assaulted in her bed in February 2010. The victim, now 21, testified this week that Harris, with whom she was acquainted, entered her bedroom as she was going to sleep and tickled her before raping her.

“I didn’t do nothing, because I was scared,” she recounted in tearful testimony. “I didn’t know what to do.”

Afterward, she thought, “What should I do? Should I say something? Or should I keep quiet?”

She disclosed the abuse at her school the following day, leading to an investigation by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office and the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services. Within hours of the disclosure, the Sheriff’s Office recovered evidence from the house in which the rape occurred, including the victim’s bed linens, detective Sgt. Randall Fernandez testified.

Harris’ DNA was found in seminal stains and skin cells on the bed sheets, according to testimony. Statistically speaking, the probability that the genetic material belongs to someone other than Harris is only greater than one in 100 billion, DNA analyst Sarah Serou of the JPSO Regional DNA Laboratory testified.

Serou’s findings led the Sheriff’s Office to obtain an arrest warrant, Fernandez testified.

The victim testified this week that she felt “disgusting” after he raped her, and that she “hated myself for the longest.”

“I forgive Marcus, because I’m a Christian,” the victim testified. “But I will never forget what happened.”

Harris did not testify. The defense depicted the victim as an emotionally troubled youth and suggested she planted the seminal fluid on her bed sheets. Harris’ mother, two brothers and his sister-in-law testified for his defense, primarily to call the victim’s credibility into question.

Soon after the rape investigation began, Harris pleaded guilty to an unrelated charge of second-degree battery of his then 19-year-old girlfriend, for which he received a four-year sentence. The rape investigation proceeded, leading to charges being filed in court after he completed that sentence.

The sentence for forcible rape is five years to 40 years in prison. Judge Ellen Shirer Kovach of the 24^th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Harris on Sept. 26.

Assistant District Attorneys Douglas Rushton and Lynn Schiffman prosecuted the case.

A 43-year-old New Orleans man averted his trial by pleading guilty on Monday (Aug. 15) to molesting a 7-year-old girl two years ago.

Ulysses Maxwell pleaded guilty as charged to sexual battery of a juvenile under age 13 and cyberstalking, and received a 25-year prison sentence. He also will have to register as sex offender for the rest of his life after he’s released from prison.

“We as a society should not tolerate predators of our own species,” Judge Danyelle Taylor of the 24^th Judicial District Court told Maxwell.

According to witnesses in the case, the victim was sleeping at her grandmother’s home on the West Bank in early 2014, and Maxwell was there at the time. He invited the victim into the kitchen, sat her on an ice chest and told her to close her eyes to play a game.

When she realized that Maxwell was sexually abusing her, she opened her eyes and began to cry, leading Maxwell to give her a candy bar. The victim told her grandmother, but she did not report the incident to anyone.

Several months later, the victim was watching a television show about child sexual predators and asked her mother if should could tell her anything. The mother said she could, and the child disclosed the abuse, leading the mother to notify the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office.

The victim’s biological father and her mother’s boyfriend at the time, meanwhile, sought Maxwell out and beat him up.

Maxwell in turn sent a threatening text message to the boyfriend’s cellular phone, telling him, “You know yall should have killed me now my turn. You a died man.” [sic] That text message served as the basis for the cyberstalking charge.

Judge Taylor sentenced Maxwell to 25 years for the sexual battery, to be served without the benefit of probation, parole or suspended sentence. She sentenced Maxwell to six months for the cyberstalking and ran it concurrently with the 25 years.

Maxwell had been scheduled to stand trial this week for the offenses and faced 25 years to 99 years had he been convicted of the sexual battery. Through his public defender, however, he appeared in court Monday morning and offered to plead guilty as charged to both offenses.

Assistant District Attorneys Blair Constant and Rhonda Goode-Douglas prosecuted the case.

 

On the morning after his 8-year-old victim testified against him, a former Metairie resident pleaded guilty as charged on Thursday (Aug. 11) to two counts of indecent behavior with a juvenile under age 13 in exchange for a 10-year prison sentence.

Eric Fontenelle, 53, who more recently resided in Abita Springs, also will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life after he is released from prison, 24^th Judicial District Court Judge Glenn Ansardi ordered in accepting the negotiated plea agreement.

Fontenelle admitted that he inappropriately touched the then 7-year-old girl near her genital area outside her clothing on Oct. 5 and again on Oct. 6 in a Metairie home. Afterward, he told her, “If you tell anybody about this, I’m going to spank you,” prosecutors told the Jefferson Parish jury.

The victim disclosed Fontenelle’s behavior to her stepfather on Oct. 19, leading the family to notify the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office. The child repeated her description of what happened to a road deputy, a sex crimes detective, the Jefferson Children’s Advocacy Center and Children’s Hospital.

She also repeated the description on Wednesday evening for the jury. Her testimony Wednesday evening apparently was a factor in Fontenelle’s decision to plead guilty.

Fontenelle had access to the child and was in a position of trust with her family. The abuse and betrayal has left turmoil in the victim’s home, the child’s mother said in an impact statement that was read aloud in court on Thursday.

“You have taken my little girl’s innocence away, something she will never get back,” the mother wrote. “It may be over today, but we still have a long healing process ahead of us!”

Before Thursday, Fontenelle’s criminal history included convictions of narcotics-related offenses. In addition to sex-offender registration, Fontenelle will be under state supervision for the rest of his life after he completes his prison sentence.

While the crimes happened in Metairie, Fontenelle provided the court with an Abita Springs address for his residence.

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

 

A former Marrero resident faces five years to 20 years in prison, for his conviction on Wednesday (June 22) of a second offense of failing to register as a sex offender.

A Jefferson Parish jury deliberated just over 15 minutes in finding Gerald Dominick guilty as charged. The jury delivered the verdict about 5:40 p.m., Wednesday.

Judge June Darensburg of the 24^th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Dominick on July 25.

Dominick, 60, was required by law to register as a sex offender for life because of a conviction of forcible rape in Jefferson Parish in 1984. He had been charged with aggravated rape of a 13-year-old girl in February 1984. Subsequent to a negotiated plea agreement, he admitted to committing a forcible rape that same year and received a 17-year prison sentence.

Then, between 2005 and 2011, he failed to maintain his registration. He pleaded guilty to failure to register in 2011 and received a two-year prison sentence. He returned to Jefferson Parish in January 2013, but he never registered as a sex offender.

The Sheriff’s Office arrested him in 2015, leading to his being charged with the second offense of failing to register and to this week’s trial.

Dominick pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, and his attorney argued that because of his history of psychiatric disorders, Dominick did not know right from wrong when he failed to register.

Assistant District Attorneys Josh Vanderhooft and Douglas Rushton prosecuted the case.