Tag: domestic violence

Lam Thach sentenced to life plus 40 years for murdering Ngoc Bich Nguyen in domestic violence stabbing

A Jefferson Parish judge on Wednesday (May 22) sentenced Lam Thach to life in prison plus 40 years for his conviction of fatally stabbing his girlfriend and then discarding evidence tying him to the crime.

Thach, 43, was convicted as charged by a jury earlier this month of the second-degree murder of Ngoc Bich Nguyen, 41.

Thach, who has a history of domestic violence, stabbed her in the neck inside his mobile home in Marrero on Aug. 1, 2021. He then fled on foot, removing his shirt as he walked and tossing it in a nearby garbage bin — leading to his conviction of obstruction of justice.

Nguyen, the oldest of six children and the mother of two, bled to death while being cradled in her mother’s arms on the ground at the Ames Boulevard trailer park. Just moments earlier, Nguyen’s mother witnessed Thach pulling the kitchen knife from her firstborn’s neck.

“Her pain is immeasurable,” one of Nguyen’s younger sisters said of her mother in victim-impact testimony on Wednesday. “Our family will forever bear the scars of this tragedy.”

Click here to read about the trial.

After denying defense motions for a new trial and post-verdict judgment of acquittal, 24th Judicial District Court Judge Ellen Shirer Kovach sentenced Thach to the mandatory life sentence in prison for the murder and the maximum 40 years in prison for obstruction of justice.

Judge Kovach ran the sentences consecutively and then denied the defense motion to reconsider her sentencing decision.

“I believe that the sentence is justified, given the horrific nature of the crime, given the victim impact testimony and, in particular, the lack of remorse shown by Mr. Thach,” Judge Kovach said. She noted Thach laughing when questioned by a Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office detective after his arrest.

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

Lam Thach guilty of murdering Ngoc Bich Nguyen in domestic violence stabbing

A Jefferson Parish jury on Thursday (May 9) found Lam Thach guilty of killing his girlfriend by plunging a knife into her neck in Marrero.

Thach, 43, is guilty as charged of the second-degree murder of Ngoc Bich Nguyen, 41, in Marrero on Aug. 1, 2021, jurors unanimously decided.

A native of Vietnam, Nguyen was the oldest of six children who immigrated to the United States in 1990, first to Dallas, Texas, and then Metairie two years later. At the time of her death, she was living in Algiers with an uncle and had been dating Thach about three years.

In the months prior to her death, she twice called New Orleans police to her Joycelyn Drive home to report that Thach had physically abused her. He strangled her, threatened to not let her leave and was armed with a knife, she told police, who arrested him. Just four days after he was released from his bond obligations in the last arrest, he killed her.

On Aug. 1, 2021, after Thach sent Nguyen messages in which he maligned her family and called her derogatory names, Nguyen asked her mother to speak with Thach’s father, with whom she was acquainted.

Nguyen, her mother and her mother’s boyfriend drove to the Ames Boulevard trailer park in Marrero where Thach lived with his father. They spoke with Thach’s father, who in turn wanted his son to apologize.

Without apparent provocation, Thach entered the room and slapped Nguyen as she sat on the sofa. He then locked the front door to prevent anyone from leaving. He threatened to kill Nguyen and then went to the kitchen. Nguyen’s mother called 911.

Thach’s father unlocked the door, and Nguyen’s mother’s boyfriend walked out. Her mother was following him. Nguyen remained behind, sending a text message to her uncle and telling him that Thach slapped her. Her mother was near the front door when Thach reappeared from the kitchen, telling Nguyen, “You cannot leave.”

Nguyen called out: Thach had a knife and was trying to kill her. Her mother turned back toward her daughter. She saw Thach pulling the knife out of her first-born’s neck.

Nguyen’s mother held her hand and walked her out of the trailer, fearing that Thach would harm her, too. They called 911 again. Nguyen then lay on the ground. Cradling her daughter’s head and trying to stop the bleeding, her mother cried, “Don’t leave me.” Nguyen died there in her mother’s arms.

Thach casually walked away, removing his shirt and discarding it in a nearby garbage bin. A Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office deputy responding to the 911 call spotted and arrested him five minutes after he killed Nguyen. Questioned later by a detective, Thach said, “I will take my lick,” street talk for taking the punishment for his actions.

At trial, his attorneys laid blame on Nguyen and her family because they went to the trailer to initiate a confrontation. They asked jurors to consider manslaughter, a lesser homicide offense. And they painted Thach as a sympathetic person who immigrated to the United States about a decade ago, is illiterate, worked as a fisher and is unable to speak clearly because of a cleft lip.

Jurors who were seated Tuesday deliberated about 40 minutes before returning their verdicts. In addition to the murder, Thach was convicted as charged of obstruction of justice for discarding the shirt, which was evidence.

Judge Ellen Shirer Kovach of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Thach on May 22.

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

 

Arnold Magee gets life sentence for fatally shooting his estranged girlfriend

A Jefferson Parish judge on Friday (March 8) sentenced Arnold Magee to life in prison for his conviction of firing a military-style rifle at his estranged girlfriend outside his Metairie apartment building, killing her.

Magee, 37, fired two .223-caliber bullets at Kawana Tibbit on July, 2, 2020, while she was in the driver’s seat of her car in the apartment complex parking lot in the 4100 block of Hessmer Avenue, an area of Metairie with a high population density given the number of apartment complexes.

His first bullet struck a van parked nearby. The second bullet struck her in the right arm, causing massive internal damage.

Mortally wounded, Tibbit drove her car forward through the parking lot and crossed Hessmer Avenue to an apartment building. Her car struck a parked vehicle, where she died. She was 27.

A Jefferson Parish jury on Feb. 22 found Magee guilty as charged of second-degree murder.

Click here to read about the crime.

Magee appeared before 24th Judicial District Court Judge Donnie Rowan on Friday for the sentencing hearing, during which Tibbit’s cousin said in impact testimony that “domestic violence is serious.”

“I want you to know that I forgive you, because if I don’t, I know I will not have peace in my heart,” Tibbit’s cousin testified.

Judge Rowan denied Magee’s attorneys’ requests for a new trial, which included arguments that he was defending himself when shot Tibbit. Video surveillance evidence refutes Magee’s self-defense assertions. The judge also noted how the videos show Magee walking around his apartment complex after shooting Tibbit with the military-style rifle.

“I watched you walk around like this was Beirut, like this was a war-torn country,” Judge Rowan told Magee before sending him to the mandatory life sentence in prison without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence.

Assistant District Attorneys Taylor Somerville and Rachel Africk prosecuted the case.

Arnold Magee guilty of murdering his estranged girlfriend in Metairie

A Jefferson Parish jury on Thursday (Feb. 22) found Arnold Magee guilty of fatally shooting his estranged girlfriend outside his Metairie apartment.

Magee, 37, is guilty as charged of the second-degree murder of Kawana Tibbit, 27, whom he killed in the 4100 block of Hessmer Avenue on the morning of July 2, 2020, following the end of their 5-year relationship.

Tibbit, who previously lived at the apartment, returned there just after 7 a.m., to retrieve belongings. An argument ensued, during which Tibbit received a phone call from new boyfriend. He could hear commotion in the background. Magee grabbed the phone and told him, “You’re not going to f— with her anymore.”

In a state of panic, the boyfriend told Magee he was on his way over. After the call was disconnected, she fled, and her boyfriend ran to the apartment on foot. By the time he arrived, she was dead.

Magee had armed himself with his Bushmaster XM15-E2S rifle and went to the apartment building’s parking lot after she fled. He fired two .223-caliber rounds at Tibbit’s car.

The second round struck Tibbit in the upper right arm and traveled into her chest, causing massive tissue damage to her right lung. The trajectory was consistent with Magee shooting Tibbit while her hands were on her car’s steering wheel.

Struggling to breath and bleeding to death, Tibbit drove on but crashed her car into a vehicle parked outside an apartment building across Hessmer Avenue. The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies who responded to the 911 calls found her slumped over in the driver’s seat. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Magee was among the 911 callers. In his 7:26 a.m., call, Magee told the operator that Tibbit tried to run him over in her car, and so he fired his rifle in self-defense. He returned his rifle to a closet in his apartment and waited for deputies to arrive.

Detectives recovered surveillance video footage and an audio recording of the shooting that refute Magee’s self-defense assertions.

Video shows that after Tibbet ran out of Magee’s apartment carrying her shoes, he casually walked out carrying the military-style rifle while speaking on his cell phone. He then stood outside the apartment building, holding the rifle.

Shortly after, Magee and Tibbit appeared to be conversing outside the apartment building. She stood beside her car, while he remained at the entrance to an entry gate to his building, holding the rifle. She got into her car and accelerated away. Magee fired the first bullet. It struck a parked van.

Tibbit then put her car into reverse and veered toward Magee before crashing into the building. After Tibbit’s car came to a stop, Magee fired a second time, striking her. She screamed and accelerated away again, eventually crashing into a parked vehicle across Hessmer.

Magee, meanwhile, casually walked through his apartment building, peering out to where Tibbit’s car crashed across the street. He hid the rifle under his clothing, walked across Hessmer and looked into Tibbit’s car.

He walked back to his apartment and, with the rifle still hidden under his clothing, he called 911. He remained at the scene and voluntarily spoke with detectives.

A deputy recovered the rifle from Magee’s apartment. Its safety selector switch was still in the fire position, and there was a round in the chamber, meaning it was ready to be fired. A full, 30-round magazine was inserted in the rifle.

In addition to maintaining Magee’s self-defense assertions, his attorneys argued that he suffered from alcohol addiction withdrawals and, explaining the rifle, also was fearful of Tibbit’s new boyfriend. The attorneys also suggested that jurors consider returning with a verdict of manslaughter, a lesser degree of homicide committed in the heat of passion that carries a sentence of up to 40 years in prison.

The jury that was seated on Monday deliberated about 1 ½ hours on Thursday before returning with its verdict.

Judge Donnie Rowan of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Magee on March 8.

Assistant District Attorneys Rachel Africk and Taylor Somerville prosecuted the case.

30-minute jury: Brandon Kestle not insane; guilty of murdering girlfriend’s mother

A Jefferson Parish jury on Thursday evening (Dec. 14) convicted Brandon Kestle of killing his girlfriend’s mother in their Metairie apartment, rejecting his assertion that he was insane when he shot her twice in the head and therefore could not be held criminally responsible.

Kestle, 34, is guilty as charged of the second-degree murder of Linda Paquette, 66, jurors unanimously decided during 30 minutes of deliberation.

At about 1:30 a.m., on May 25, 2020, Kestle armed himself with a .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol and shot her in a bedroom of their newly acquired rental home in the 700 block of North Howard Avenue.

Paquette’s 10-year-old granddaughter witnessed the crime, and her two adult children heard the gunfire and saw Kestle immediately after with the pink and black pistol. After killing her, Kestle called 911, told the operator what he had done and said he would be waiting outside for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies to arrive.

Deputies found Kestle seated on the concrete sidewalk and the pistol set nearby. He surrendered peaceably.

He told one of the deputies that Paquette had been poisoning him since he was a child. He later told a detective that he was sitting on a toilet and smoking marijuana when he decided to kill her. “I just wanted to make sure that b—- was dead,” Kestle told the detective.

Kestle pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity.

His attorney argued he was insane at the time he killed Paquette. A forensic psychiatrist testifying for the defense opined that Kestler has a paranoid and persecutorial delusional disorder. She cited, for instance, Kestle’s assertions that Paquette had been poisoning him for 25 years and that someone replaced his children with other children. And because of this disorder, he was unable to distinguish right from wrong at the time of the offense, the forensic psychiatrist testified.

In rebuttal, however, the state provided the testimony of forensic psychologist who found that Kestle has no identifiable delusional disorder. For instance, it made little sense for Kestle to move in with a woman who he later said had been poisoning him – something he said only after he killed her. His marijuana use could have caused paranoia, the forensic psychologist testified.

Further, the state’s forensic psychologist testified that after killing Paquette, he called 911 to report what he had done and surrendered. That behavior demonstrates that he knew right from wrong in killing Paquette, the expert witness testified.

Jurors also heard a recording of a phone call between Kestle and a woman while he was awaiting a mental evaluation in the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center. “You’re not crazy,” the woman told him. “I know,” he replied in agreement. “That’s what I told her.” He added that a psychiatrist told him to go to a mental hospital, and he said that it was in his best interest to do so. The woman responded, “It’s in your best interest.”

He also was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He is prohibited from possessing firearms because of a narcotics possession conviction in St. Bernard Parish in a 2015 case.

The jury that was seated on Tuesday heard two days of testimony and returned with its guilty verdicts about 6:15 p.m., Thursday. Judge Nancy Miller of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Kestle on Wednesday (Dec. 20).

Assistant District Attorneys Eric Cusimano and Taylor Somerville prosecuted the case.

Donovan Lafrance convicted of murdering his ex’s new boyfriend in jealous rage

A Jefferson Parish jury on Thursday (Dec. 7) convicted Donovan Lafrance of murdering his ex-girlfriend’s boyfriend in a jealous rage in her West Bank apartment last year.

Lafrance, 30, of Gretna, is guilty as charged of first-degree murder for shooting Clarence Harvey twice in the chest and once in the head, jurors unanimously decided.

Harvey, 31, of Braithwaite, was fatally shot at about 12:45 a.m., on Sept. 29, 2022, in the bedroom of his 28-year-old girlfriend’s apartment in the 3200 block of Wall Boulevard in Harvey. He was pronounced dead soon after.

Donovan Lafrance “wasn’t going there for the pots and pans, ladies and gentlemen. He was going there to kill Clarence Henry, because he couldn’t take (his ex-girlfriend) moving on.” – Assistant District Attorney Taylor Somerville

Lafrance dated the woman for about five years, but she parted ways with him in 2021 because of his physically abusive behavior. In May 2021, he struck her with his fist and then with a pistol, requiring her to seek medical attention. She received five stiches for that beating. She declined to press charges but distanced herself from Lafrance. In September 2022, days after he saw his ex-girlfriend with Harvey, Lafrance strangled her by putting his hands around her neck, leading her to pass out. She did not contact the police.

Despite the abuse and breakup, they remained in contact during the year that followed. They even traveled to New York together the week before the murder. But she made it clear that they were no longer in a relationship. Lafrance was aware that she had been dating Harvey and even knew him.

During the day before the murder, she and Lafrance exchanged numerous text messages, discussing their failed relationship, her distrust of him because of his physical abuse and her moving on with her life. She told him she wanted to be in a place in her life where she could trust him again, referencing his physical abuse. She described him as a man with conflicting sides: a prince who she would marry but also an abuser. He acknowledged it and said he “wouldn’t never touch another female another day my life.”

That evening, she went to her job at a Marrero bar. Lafrance sent a text message, asking what she was doing. At work, she replied, and she added that Harvey and another man were there.

Two minutes later, he asked her in a text message, “He sleeping there huh?” She replied saying Harvey would not be, but he and other friends would be visiting her at her apartment after work.

The text messages continued. She reiterated her thoughts about his physical abuse, and apologetically said she had to heal “on my own.” She sent her last text message to Lafrance at 11:12 p.m.

After her shift ended, she and Harvey drove separately to her apartment. After midnight, Lafrance called her phone several times. She didn’t answer. At 12:33 a.m., he sent her a text message, saying “The worst thing is too [sic] not answer.”

Lafrance went to her apartment. “He wasn’t going there for the pots and pans, ladies and gentlemen,” Assistant District Attorney Taylor Somerville told jurors in closing argument Thursday morning. “He was going there to kill Clarence Henry, because he couldn’t take (his ex-girlfriend) moving on.”

Less than 10 minutes after sending his ex-girlfriend that last text message, Lafrance repeatedly rang her doorbell and then banged on the door. She dressed to see who was at the door. But before she could answer it, Lafrance kicked the door open. He ran up to the second-floor bedroom and burst through the bedroom door and struck her. He demanded the keys to her car so he could retrieve his property from the vehicle and stormed out. He was retrieving his 9mm semiautomatic pistol.

He returned to the apartment minutes later. Harvey, who was partially nude and unarmed, remained in her bedroom during the incident. Lafrance returned to the bedroom and without provocation he pointed the pistol at Harvey, who was still in the bed.

Lafrance fired the first five bullets from outside the bedroom door, striking Harvey twice in the chest. He then entered the bedroom, stood over Harvey and fired the sixth bullet into his head.

“He was fueled by anger. What he did on that day was nothing short of first-degree murder.” – Assistant District Attorney Lindsay Truhe.

At 12:42 a.m., she called 911 and frantically pleaded with Lafrance not to shoot. “Don’t hit me, please,” and “Please, Donovan, stop,” she told him. The call was disconnected. Lafrance pulled the cell phone from her hand before fleeing with it to his car, whose engine he left running before he kicked in the apartment door. Two minutes later, she called 911 again. Jurors heard recordings of the calls.

“He was fueled by anger,” Assistant District Attorney Lindsay Truhe told jurors Tuesday in opening statements. “What he did on that day was nothing short of first-degree murder.”

Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived shortly after and found Harvey lying face up beside a wall in the bedroom. Lafrance was indicted on a charge of first-degree murder, based on his committing an aggravated burglary by forcing his way inside the apartment.

In testimony on Wednesday night, Lafrance admitted that he shot Harvey but believed that Harvey had a gun. He also blamed his behavior on his girlfriend, saying she lied to and cheated on him. His attorney accused the woman of inciting the murder. He suggested his client at most was guilty of manslaughter, which is a homicide committed in the heat of passion and carries a sentence of up to 40 years in prison.

The jury that heard two days of testimony deliberated about 1 hour and 15 minutes before returning with its verdict: Guilty as charged of first-degree murder. The District Attorney’s Office did not seek the death penalty.

Judge Donnie Rowan of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Lafrance on Dec. 12.

Assistant District Attorneys Taylor Somerville and Lindsay Truhe prosecuted the case.

Charles Ross convicted of first-degree murder for killing his ex-girlfriend in Metairie

A Jefferson Parish jury on Thursday (Nov. 2) found Charles Ross guilty of murdering his ex-girlfriend in her Metairie apartment while her special needs daughter watched.

Ross, 45, robbed a man of his pickup truck in Baton Rouge and drove to the 100 block of Houma Boulevard, where at about 3 a.m., on June 3, 2021, he kicked open Nygia Lambert’s apartment door and shot her eight times as she hid under her bed pleading for her life.

Lambert’s 24-year-old daughter locked herself in the bathroom and called 911, telling the operator, “Mr. Ross killed my mom.” Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies found Lambert’s lifeless, naked body. She was 47, the mother of five daughters and the grandmother of one child.

For that, he was convicted as charged of first-degree murder. The District Attorney’s Office did not seek the death penalty, meaning life in prison is the mandatory punishment. Jurors also found Ross guilty of attempted obstruction of justice, for fleeing with the murder weapon.

A convicted felon who served time in prison for beating a previous girlfriend and was legally barred from possessing firearms, Ross armed himself with a 9mm semiautomatic pistol and carjacked a man in Baton Rouge. He succeeded in eluding police officers who pursued him.

In testimony Thursday, Ross told jurors that upon learning Lambert ended their relationship, he went on a cocaine binge. From the witness stand, he openly admitted he killed Lambert. His attorneys asked jurors to consider convicting him of manslaughter, a lesser homicide that carries a punishment of up to 40 years in prison and involves a killing “committed in sudden passion or heat of blood immediately caused by provocation sufficient to deprive an average person of his self-control and cool reflection.”

However, the state argued that Ross’ actions bely that of manslaughter. His text messages show that a full 12 hours before he killed Lambert, Ross told another woman that, “I’m going to f— this girl up.”

When Louisiana State Police arrested Ross in Baton Rouge, he was in possession of the murder weapon and the keys to the pickup truck he stole.

The jury that was selected on Tuesday deliberated about 1 ½ hours Thursday before returning with its verdicts. Judge Stephen Grefer of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Ross on Nov. 13.

Assistant District Attorneys Rachel Africk and Blaine Moncrief prosecuted the case.

Shawn Chiasson pleads guilty as charged to murdering ex-girlfriend

A Jefferson Parish judge on Wednesday (July 5) sentenced Shawn Chiasson to spend the rest of his life in prison after the defendant abruptly ended his murder trial and pleaded guilty as charged to killing his estranged girlfriend.

Chiasson, 28, of Marrero, pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of Lindsey Williams, 29, by shooting her once in the left side of her head in the bedroom of her home in the 1100 block of Gaudet Drive. He then fled, leaving her 11-year-old son behind with his dying mother on the morning of Aug. 14, 2021.

The jury that was seated last week returned to 24th Judicial District Judge Ray Steib’s courtroom on Wednesday to hear testimony. Jurors heard the state’s opening statement. Jurors heard testimony from Williams’ mother and were midway through the direct examination of Chiasson’s ex-girlfriend when he decided to plead guilty.

In addition to second-degree murder, Chiasson pleaded guilty as charged to being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm and to obstruction of justice. He was prohibited from possessing firearms because of a 2021 conviction of possession of heroin. After he shot Williams, Chiasson fled to Westwego, where he dumped the pistol along a canal bank – leading to the obstruction of justice charge.

Judge Steib sentenced Chiasson to the mandatory life sentence for the murder, 20 years for the firearm charge and 40 for the obstruction of justice. He ran the sentences concurrently.

On the night before her death, Williams gathered with friends at a downtown Gretna restaurant and then on the Mississippi River levee. Chiasson arrived and texted her, “I’m looking dead at you.”

Just before 9 a.m., the following morning, her son was in his bedroom when he heard something across the hall in his mother’s bedroom. He opened the door and saw Chiasson with blood on his hands.

Chiasson then used the child’s cell phone to call 911, telling the operator that his name was “Jake,” and saying someone had been shot. Chiasson fled, and the child waited on the front porch for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office to arrive.

Following his arrest two days later, Chiasson told detectives that the pistol accidentally fired as he removed it from his pants’ waistband.

Chiasson’s public defender waived giving an opening statement Wednesday. Chiasson’s ex-girlfriend was the second witness, who was called to testify about a 2017 incident in which he beat her while she was eight months pregnant. She refused to answer a prosecutor’s questions Wednesday and faced a contempt hearing. It was while she was on the witness stand that Chiasson told his public defender that he would plead guilty as charged.

Jurors briefly left the courtroom on Wednesday, unaware that Chiasson was pleading guilty. Judge Steib called the jurors back to his courtroom and told him about the guilty plea. The jurors voluntarily remained in court to hear victim impact testimony and to see Chiasson sentenced.

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

 

Darryl Vinson gets 115-year sentence for brutalizing woman

A Jefferson Parish judge has sentenced Darryl Vinson to 115 years in prison for his conviction of brutalizing and beating a woman he held captive in her Gretna home for three days in 2021.

Vinson, 60, of Marrero, was convicted as charged by a Jefferson Parish jury on May 3 of attempted second-degree murder, second-degree kidnapping, second-degree sexual battery and false imprisonment with a dangerous weapon.

Judge Ray Steib of the 24th Judicial District Court on Thursday (June 15) sentenced Vinson to 50 years for attempted second-degree murder, 40 years for second-degree kidnapping, 15 years for second-degree sexual battery and 10 years for false imprisonment with a dangerous weapon.

Judge Steib ran the sentences consecutively, for a total of 115 years.

The crimes occurred between Jan. 27, 2021 and Jan. 29, 2021, in the 48-year-old woman’s Claire Avenue home.

He hogtied the naked woman, forced her to sleep on the cold tile floor in a closet, made her crawl on all fours when he let her leave the closet, kicked her and inserted the barrel of her pistol into her body. He stabbed her in the forehead and left lacerations from a serrated knife blade just below her neck.

To prevent her from crying aloud, he inserted dirty underwear and socks into her mouth and used duct tape to keep them in place. He forced her to eat cat food and injected methamphetamine into her body. He wouldn’t let her use her phone.

The victim’s injuries included brain bleeding, a fractured eye socket for which she has a titanium plate, fractured ribs, a bruised lung and numerous lacerations and ligature marks on her neck, wrists and ankles. She was hospitalized for 12 days, four of which were spent in an intensive care unit.

The sexual assault nurse examiner who documented the victim’s injuries testified that the case is “one of the most severe that I’ve seen.”

Vinson, who was homeless, met the woman outside a Gretna-area drugstore and befriended her. Their platonic relationship evolved into a romantic one. He moved in with her.

Just days after she had surgery to treat a hernia, on Jan. 27, 2021, the victim accompanied Vinson to his mother’s home in Marrero. Feeling the pain of her surgery, she returned to her Gretna home. Vinson arrived later and began accusing her of having sex with another man – assertions she denied.

The physical abuse began and continued until Jan. 29, 2021. After flashing a pistol at her, Vinson forced the victim to walk to Manhattan Boulevard and the Westbank Expressway in Harvey to panhandle motorists.

Soon after, witnesses began calling 911 to report Vinson beating the victim. In one 911 recording, a caller described the victim as being “black and blue and covered in blood.” Gretna police, which investigated the crimes, found much of her home in disarray, except for the master bedroom that smelled of bleach because of Vinson’s attempt to clean it.

Vinson’s attorney argued that his client and the victim wrangled with substance abuse problems, and that her recollections about what occurred might not be as clear as she now asserts.

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

 

Convicted of killing his children’s mother, Kenny Rojas sentenced to life in prison

A Jefferson Parish judge on Tuesday (May 16) sentenced Kenny Rojas to spend the rest of his life in prison for his conviction of shooting his estranged girlfriend in the chest and fleeing, leaving her to die with their three young children.

Rojas, 38, was convicted as charged Thursday of second-degree murder for killing Lizeth Maldonado, 32, in their home in the 1200 block of Angus Drive in Harvey, on Feb. 27, 2022. He also was convicted of obstruction of justice, for getting rid of the revolver he used to kill her.

Amid an argument over infidelity, Rojas pressed a revolver to Maldonado’s left breast and fired once. Their 12-year-old daughter heard the gunshots, went to her parents’ bedroom and saw her father shooting her mother. “He killed me,” the child heard her mother said.

Rojas fled, leaving behind his daughter and sons, ages seven and eight. His daughter called 911, whose operator instructed the child on life-saving measures until deputies arrived minutes later. Maldonado died on the floor of her bedroom.

Rojas surrendered to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office about six hours later. At trial, he asserted he was trying to prevent Maldonado from shooting herself, and during the struggle over the revolver, it fired.

After denying a defense request for a new trial, 24th Judicial District Judge Nancy Miller noted Rojas’ trial testimony, in which he said his children lied. “You abandoned them as you abandoned your wife as she lay there bleeding on the floor,” she told Rojas.

For second-degree murder, she sentenced Rojas to the mandatory life sentence in prison without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence. Judge Miller also sentenced Rojas to the maximum 40 years for obstruction of justice. She ran the sentences concurrently.

Assistant District Attorneys Lindsay Truhe and Leo Aaron prosecuted the case.