Tag: jefferson parish sheriff’s office

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.

Jefferson Parish jury: Kenny Rojas murdered girlfriend, fled leaving their 3 children with dying mother

A Jefferson Parish jury on Thursday (May 11) found Kenny Rojas guilty of fatally shooting his estranged girlfriend during an argument before he fled, leaving their three young children in their Harvey home with their dying mother.

Rojas, 38, was convicted as charged of the second-degree murder of Lizeth Maldonado, 32, who died Feb. 27, 2022, in the bedroom of her home in the 1200 block of Angus Drive. He also was convicted as charged of obstruction of justice, for getting rid of the revolver he used to commit the murder.

During the argument, in which Rojas accused Maldonado of having an affair, he pressed the barrel of his revolver against her left breast and fired one bullet. Their 12-year-old daughter was bathing when she heard the gunshot.

The child ran to the bedroom and saw her father shooting and pointing the pistol at her mother. She heard her mother say, “He killed me.”

Rojas told his daughter to call 911 and fled, leaving the child and her younger brothers, ages seven and eight, alone in the residence.

The 911 operator instructed the 12-year-old girl to perform CPR on her mother and to apply direct pressure to the bullet wound to slow the bleeding. As one of her brothers wailed in the background, the child performed the lifesaving tasks on her mother until the first Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office deputy arrived. Her mother died on the bedroom floor, just over 10 minutes after she called 911.

Immediately after he shot Maldonado, Rojas drove to Bayou Segnette State Park in Westwego. It was there that members of his family met him and drove him away.

About six hours later, the Sheriff’s Office received a call from a relative of Rojas’, saying he wanted to turn himself in. Deputies arrested Rojas at a Terrytown residence. Before his arrest, Rojas admitted to numerous family members that he shot Maldonado.

His daughter told detectives and a forensic child abuse interviewer that he shot her mother.

During trial, Rojas’ attorneys suggested that Maldonado’s family influenced her daughter’s saying that her father shot her mother. They also argued that Maldonado held the gun and pointed it at their client and then at herself. They asserted that their client tried to disarm Maldonado, and during the tussle, the bullet was fired.

However, based on the location of the bullet wound and the angle the bullet followed through her body, the defense theory is unlikely, according to the forensic pathologist.

The jury deliberated about one hour and 15 minutes before returning with its verdicts. Judge Nancy Miller of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Rojas on Tuesday (May 16).

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

 

NOTE: This post was updated on May 16, 2023, to correct Ms. Maldonado’s age.

In ‘Ramos’ retrial, Ivory Franklin convicted anew in Harvey teen’s murder

A Jefferson Parish jury on Wednesday night (March 29) found Ivory Franklin guilty of shooting a teenager in the back of his head as they walked along a Harvey drainage canal bank. Franklin also was convicted of attempting to kill a second teenager in the same shooting.

Franklin, 25, of Harvey, is guilty as charged of the second-degree murder of Reginald Black, 17, and the attempted second-degree murder of Black’s 15-year-old nephew, jurors unanimously decided after two hours of deliberations.

This marked the third time Franklin stood trial for the killings. In October 2017, a jury could not reach a legal verdict, resulting in a mistrial. The following year, a second trial was held. He was convicted as charged. He received a life sentence plus 40 years.

However, Franklin was granted a new trial in September 2020, after the U.S. Supreme Court decided in its Ramos v. Louisiana decision that non-unanimous jury verdicts are unconstitutional. The jury in Franklin’s second trial did not return with unanimous verdicts.

About 3 a.m., on May 5, 2016, Franklin, then 18, and the victims were walking along the canal’s concrete embankment behind homes on Windmere Court in the Woodmere subdivision, en route to a convenience store. They were walking in a single-file line, with Black in the front and the 15-year-old in the rear.

Black asked for a light for his cigarette when Franklin pulled the revolver out from his waistband and fired once into the back of Black’s head. He then turned to the 15-year-old behind him and began shooting. One bullet ricocheted off the concrete embankment.

In testimony Wednesday, the victim stared unflinchingly at Franklin as he described seeing Black shot to death. He leapt into the canal water and emerged on the other side to seek help by banging on a resident’s front door. That resident called 911. Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies who responded found Black lying face-down on the canal bank.

Franklin denied it. He blamed the 15-year-old, whom he accused of smoking marijuana and was playing with a pistol when it discharged.

The jury that was seated on Tuesday deliberated two hours before returning with its verdicts at 11:30 p.m., Wednesday. Judge Donnie Rowan of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Franklin on April 28.

Assistant District Attorneys Douglas Rushton and Stephen Downer prosecuted the case.

 

Jefferson Parish DA, Sheriff’s Office cold-case team gets Crimestoppers award

 

Crimestoppers of Greater New Orleans on Tuesday (March 14) recognized a Jefferson Parish cold-case investigative and prosecution team with its Law Enforcement Unit of the Year “Protector Award,” for solving and bringing closure to a 45-year-old case involving the rape and murder of a 5-year-old Waggaman girl.

Nancy Michel, chief of the District Attorney’s Office Victim/Witness Assistance Division, Assistant District Attorneys Doug Freese and Shannon Swaim and the late District Attorney investigator John Ronquillo were recognized for their work in solving the sexual assault and death of Stephanie Hebert.

Retired WWL-TV anchor Karen Swenson accepted the award on behalf of her husband, John Ronquillo who died in 2018.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office Capt. Dennis Thornton, Lt. David Mascaro and detectives Jesus Falcon and Jerry Devorak also were recognized for their work on Stephanie Hebert’s case.

Stephanie Hebert went missing on June 13, 1978. Her remains were found five months later tied to a tree in a wooded area in St. Charles Parish.

The case went cold until an effort led by Nancy Michel prompted the District Attorney’s Office and Capt. Thornton of the JPSO Cold-Case Squad to re-examine the case, leading to the arrest and indictment of Jason Franklin Sr., for three counts of aggravated rape in 2019. These crimes involved Stephanie Hebert and two other child victims.

The District Attorney’s Office was in the process of reviewing the case on Franklin for Stephanie Hebert’s death when he died in prison in 2021. Meanwhile, a key witness in the case died tragically in an automobile accident in New Orleans that same year.

“Despite this outcome, and based on the posture of this case in 2021 and the evidence accumulated, investigators have closed Stephanie Hebert’s murder by exceptional means, declaring Jason Franklin Sr., the suspect responsible for her murder,” Crimestoppers said.

Tonny Bauer convicted of carjacking woman at Metairie pizzeria

A Jefferson Parish jury Wednesday night (March 8) found Tonny J. Bauer guilty of carjacking for forcibly removing a 58-year-old woman from her vehicle moments after she purchased pizzas.

It was about 8 p.m., on May 8, 2020, when Bauer, 37, entered the victim’s 2021 Nissan Rogue through the passenger-side door outside a pizza business in the 5000 block of West Esplanade Avenue.

The victim walked out of the business with her pizzas and noticed Bauer crouching down nearby, she told the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office. She entered her Rogue and placed the pizzas on the passenger’s seat. That’s when Bauer entered the vehicle.

He choked the victim as she tried to flee. After she escaped, Bauer drove away. About a half-hour later, Causeway police responded to a one-vehicle wreck in the southbound lanes of the Causeway bridge. Police determined it was the stolen vehicle, and after he appeared to attempt to climb the bridge’s railing, Bauer was arrested.

Police also found the victim’s pizza in the car. It was still hot and partially eaten.

Bauer alleged self-defense, saying he was at his home near the pizza business when he thought someone was breaking into the house. Leaving his shoes and eyeglasses behind, Bauer asserted that he ran to the pizza business and got into the victim’s car in thinking she could help him.

Jurors deliberated less than 1 ½ hours before returning with their unanimous verdict. Judge Ellen Shirer Kovach of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Bauer on March 22.

Assistant District Attorneys Carolyn Chkautovich and Alyssa Aleman prosecuted the case.

Viusqui Perez-Espinosa sentenced, again, to life in prison for Kenner murder, dismemberment

A Jefferson Parish judge on Thursday (Feb. 9) sentenced Viusqui Perez-Espinosa to life in prison for murdering his rival in a Kenner love triangle before cutting up the body and dumping the parts in a St. John the Baptist Parish swamp.

Perez, 50, was convicted as charged last week of the second-degree murder of Ives Alexis Portales-Lara.  Portales was last seen alive on the evening of Jan. 11, 2016, in the Baylor Place apartment complex he shared with a woman and her ex-boyfriend, Perez.

Portales, who moved to the New Orleans area to be near his young daughter, was a native of Honduras and was 28.

Perez was convicted of the murder and of obstruction of justice in 2018. But the jury in that trial returned with a non-unanimous verdict on the murder count. Perez received a new trial for the murder, only, in 2020, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Ramos vs. Louisiana that non-unanimous verdicts are unconstitutional.

The second jury seated to weigh the murder charge deliberated about four hours before returning with its unanimous guilty verdict on Jan. 31.

Perez and Portales were friends and coworkers whose commonality extended to a woman. Perez was sexually involved with her, but that relationship ended after she needed medical care that took her out of the United States briefly and he became involved with another woman.

Portales moved into the apartment with Perez’s ex, and that arrangement evolved into a sexual relationship. Perez, who temporarily moved back into the apartment, learned of the relationship and wanted to end it. On the morning of Jan. 11, 2016, Perez sexually assaulted the woman in the apartment after Portales departed to work. He returned to the apartment that evening and was never seen again.

The following month, a fisherman found the right arm in the Reserve Canal off Interstate 10, just west of LaPlace. The torso and leg parts were found by pipeline workers in the area the following week. The remaining body parts were never located.

DNA was used to confirm the parts were Portales’, leading to Perez’s indictment and convictions. At trial, he asserted self-defense.

Following the first trial, Judge Ellen Shirer Kovach of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced Perez to the 40-year maximum for obstruction of justice, for his attempts to conceal the murder. The jury was unanimous on that charge, and his conviction remained intact. The life sentence she gave him in 2018 was overturned due to the Ramos decision.

On Thursday, Judge Kovach denied the defense’s motions for post-verdict judgment of acquittal and for a new trial. After hearing impact statements written by Portales’ family in Honduras, Judge Kovach sentenced Perez to the mandatory punishment of life in prison, without suspension of sentence, parole or probation, for killing Portales.

Judge Kovach ran the life sentence consecutive to the 40-year sentence she gave him in 2018 for obstruction of justice, and consecutive to the 6-month jail sentence she gave Perez last week in holding him in contempt for his lashing out at a prosecutor during her cross-examination.

Judge Kovach further denied a defense motion to reconsider the sentence, saying “the facts and circumstances of this case are particularly egregious.”

Assistant District Attorneys Kellie Rish and Richard Olivier prosecuted the case.

John Blair McMillian gets 40-year sentence after manslaughter conviction

A Jefferson Parish judge sentenced John Blair McMillan IV to 40 years in prison on Thursday (Feb. 2), finding that he is a two-time felon under Louisiana’s habitual offender law.

McMillan, 58, of Marrero, was convicted as charged by a jury last month of manslaughter in the November 2020 death of his brother, Kenneth McMillan, 63.

The brothers, who had a volatile history, lived together in the 2600 block of Oklahoma Drive. It was there on Nov. 14, 2020, that John McMillan struck his brother, causing a brain injury that led to his death three days later.

On Thursday (Jan. 19), after denying a defense motion for a new trial and hearing an impact testimony statement by Kenneth McMillan’s son, 24th Judicial District Judge E. Adrian Adams sentenced McMillan to the maximum 40 years in prison for the manslaughter conviction.

Judge Adams separately sentenced McMillan to six months in jail for his related conviction of misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest and battery on a police officer. McMillan struck Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office Detective Kristian Fricke as the officer attempted to enter McMillan’s residence while serving a search warrant during the investigation into Kenneth McMillan’s death.

On Thursday, district attorney’s office argued that McMillan is a two-time felon. Prosecutors pointed to McMillan’s 2017 conviction of domestic abuse by strangulation. That incident occurred in April 2016 inside the Oklahoma Drive home and involved his physically abusing his girlfriend. He received an 18-month prison sentence for that crime.

In finding that McMillan is a habitual offender, Judge Adams vacated the 40-year sentence for the manslaughter and resentencing McMillan to 40 years in prison. The punishment is to be served without suspension of sentence.

Judge Adams also denied the defense motion to reconsider the sentence as excessive. A 40-year sentence is effectively a life sentence for McMillan, given his age, the defense attorney argued.

Assistant District Attorneys Zach Grate and Lashanda Webb prosecuted the case.

In ‘Ramos’ retrial, Kenner man convicted anew of murdering, dismembering rival in love triangle

A Jefferson Parish jury on Tuesday night (Jan. 31) found Viusqui Perez-Espinosa guilty of killing his rival for the affections of a woman in Kenner. After killing Ives Alexis Portales-Lara, Perez disarticulated the body and dumped the parts in a St. John the Baptist swamp in 2016.

Perez, 50, a native of Cuba and a former butcher, was convicted as charged of second-degree murder, jurors unanimously decided during almost four hours of deliberations.

This brings to two the number of times he’s been convicted of killing Portales, 28. A non-unanimous jury found him guilty in March 2018, and he was sentenced to mandatory life in prison.

However, in its April 2020 Ramos vs. Louisiana decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that non-unanimous jury verdicts are unconstitutional. As a result, Louisiana’s 5th Circuit Court of Appeal in September 2020 ordered that Perez would be retried for the second-degree murder.

Perez also was convicted in his 2018 trial of obstruction of justice for disposing Portales’ remains and cleaning the crime scene to cover up his crime. That jury was unanimous on that count. He is serving a 40-year sentence for that crime.

Perez and Portales were friends and co-workers who were romantically involved with the same woman, albeit at different times. Perez was first involved with the woman before their 18-month relationship ended in September 2016. Portales’ secret relationship with her began soon after he moved into the Baylor Place apartment with her.

Perez wanted to rekindle the relationship and wanted Portales out of the picture. Three days before the murder, Perez moved in with Portales and the woman. He offered Portales money to move out. Portales declined.

On the morning of Nov. 11, 2016, Perez sexually assaulted the woman after Portales left for work. Portales was last seen alive that afternoon when he returned to the apartment from his job.

The Kenner Police Department opened a missing persons investigation soon after. When questioned, Perez repeatedly denied knowing of Portales’ whereabouts. An officer noticed blood on the sofa, leading police to obtain a search warrant. Perez, meanwhile, was arrested on suspicion of raping the woman.

Using chemicals and a special light, Kenner police found evidence of a large amount of blood on the floor that had been recently cleaned. The police also found evidence of blood spatter on the walls, a plant and on the sofa, and on a jacket in the trunk of Perez’s car.

The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office’s Crime Lab used DNA analysis to determine that the blood in the apartment and on the jacket belonged to Portales. Analysts accomplished this by matching his genetic material recovered from his personal items in the apartment to that of his daughter.

The investigation expanded to include the St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff’s Office in late December 2016, when dismembered human remains were discovered in the Reserve Canal off Interstate 10.

A Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office DNA analyst then confirmed the body parts belonged to Portales. Perez was then booked with his murder.

Police recovered numerous text messages Perez sent to others in which he used derogatory terms to describe Portales and his anger over his rival continuing to live in the apartment.

Testifying Tuesday, Perez denied sexually assaulting the woman. He told jurors that on the evening of Nov. 11, 2016, Portales attacked him with a knife. During the struggle that followed, Perez alleged, the knife cut Portales’ neck, and he bled to death.

Pressed by a prosecutor during cross-examination to describe what he did to the body, Perez cried and in Spanish called her a “torturer” and “a Nazi.” For that, Perez was held in contempt of court and was sentenced to six months in jail.

Although Perez described a violent struggle, a neighbor in the adjacent apartment described only hearing the vent hood motor whirring above Perez’s stovetop for several hours. The neighbor then noted the smell of bleach emanating from next door.

The jury returned with his guilty verdict just before 11 p.m., ending the 7-day-long trial. Judge Ellen Shirer Kovach of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Perez on Feb. 9.

Assistant District Attorneys Kellie Rish and Richard Olivier prosecuted the case.

 

Half-brothers convicted of murder in West Bank shooting

A Jefferson Parish jury on Wednesday night (Jan. 25) found a pair of maternal half-brothers guilty as charged of killing a distant relative amid a feud.

Willie Battle, 31, and Eddie Salvant, 37, both of whom lived with their mother in unincorporated Gretna, were convicted of second-degree murder in the Nov. 22, 2017 death of Everette Burns.

On the day before Thanksgiving 2017, Burns was shot once in the abdomen about 4:40 p.m., just moments after getting a haircut at a barber shop in strip mall in the 400 block of Lapalco Boulevard. Burns was walking to a nearby ATM machine to withdraw cash so he could pay the barber when he was shot.

Mortally wounded, the 34-year-old Belle Chasse resident walked to his car in the parking lot and sat in the driver’s seat. Another customer at the barber shop, a former Navy corpsman, rendered aid to the profusely bleeding Burns. Instead of waiting for an ambulance to arrive, the Navy veteran rushed Burns to a nearby hospital by driving Burns’ car.

Burns died later that day at a New Orleans hospital, to where he was transferred.

Even before he died, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office received information indicating that Battle and Salvant thought that Burns was responsible for a prior shooting that occurred less than two weeks earlier.

Detectives obtained video surveillance from a nearby business and witnesses’ statements, all showing that two hooded men lingered in the parking lot for several minutes before confronting Burns in front of the strip mall. The suspects took steps to conceal their faces.

Video images show and witnesses described one of the suspects being large and the other being shorter. Battle stands 6’3” tall and weighs 350 pounds. Salvant is 5’5” and weighs 165 pounds.

A witness saw one of the men armed with a pistol moments before the shooting. Immediately after the shooting, a man matching Salvant’s physique ran toward Bannerwood Drive while holding a pistol in his right hand while another man matching Battle’s physique walked away calmly, a video shows.

Less than two weeks before Burns was murdered, the Sheriff’s Office responded to reports of gunfire in the block where Battle and Salvant lived but found nothing. The following morning, Battle contacted the Sheriff’s Office saying that someone shot up his car as it was parked in his driveway. He alleged he was asleep when it happened.

However, during the ensuing investigation, a deputy viewed video recorded by a nearby home’s surveillance system. The deputy learned that Battle, in fact, was sitting in the driver’s seat of his car when a lone gunman walked up and opened fire. He was not injured. Questioned about the video, Battle then said he did not know who shot at him.

A detective also retrieved surveillance video from a home near where Battle and Salvant lived – a 3-minute drive from the shooting scene. It showed that about 30 minutes before Burns was shot, two men matching Battle and Salvant’s physiques walked out of their home wearing clothing like that worn by the gunmen, got into their car and departed. They returned to the home after Burns was shot.

Detectives separately learned that Burns arrived at the barber shop about 30 minutes before he was shot.

Detectives also retrieved text messages between a woman and a person using a phone tied to Salvant. The messages suggest Salvant thought Burns was the person who shot at Battle as he sat in his car, and that they would seek revenge.

Questioned by a detective, the half-brothers’ mother said her sons had not been home since Nov. 22, 2017, the day of the shooting.

The U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force located and arrested Battle in Florida on Dec. 11, 2017. Task force officers located and arrested Salvant the following day in Harvey.

At trial, their attorneys argued the evidence was not strong enough for jurors to find beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendants were guilty.

The jury deliberated less than 50 minutes in finding Battle and Salvant guilty. Salvant also was convicted of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. He was barred from possessing guns because of a 2011 conviction of possession of cocaine.

Judge Frank Brindisi of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence the half-brothers on Wednesday (Feb. 1).

Assistant District Attorneys Shannon Swaim, Kristen Landrieu and Taylor Somerville prosecuted the case.

 

Ferriday man convicted of armed robbery over a drug debt

A Jefferson Parish jury on Wednesday (Jan. 18) found Landon Rogers guilty of robbing a Metairie man at gunpoint to collect on a drug debt.

Rogers, 29, of Ferriday, was convicted of armed robbery. The jury, which deliberated for 3 ½ hours, acquitted Rogers of second-degree kidnapping and aggravated burglary charges in connection with the Nov. 15, 2019 incident.

About a month before the crime, the victim, then 19 and preparing to attend a local music festival, used counterfeit cash used as movie props to purchase about $1,000 of ecstasy from a drug dealer, Jhon Da-Sliver Ferreira, 25, of Harvey.

In response, Rogers and Ferreira went to the victim’s workplace, an Uptown New Orleans bar, and eventually followed him home to his Metairie apartment in the 1500 block of Chickasaw Avenue early the following morning.

Minutes after the victim got into his bed to sleep, Rogers and Ferreira knocked on the door. When the victim answered, Rogers, who was armed with a semiautomatic pistol, and Ferreira forced their way inside and demanded money. They covered the victim’s mouth with duct tape to keep him quiet and they searched the apartment.

The victim offered various belongings, including his marijuana. Unsatisfied, Rogers and Ferreira forced the victim to drive his car to his bank’s ATM in New Orleans’ Lakeview neighborhood. Once there, the victim realized he left his ATM card at his apartment. He offered to give the robbers prescription medication, which was at his mother’s apartment less than two miles away in Metairie. At the mother’s home, the suspects also stole a laptop computer belonging to the victim’s brother.

These latter events led to the kidnapping and burglary charges, for which Rogers was acquitted.

After leaving the victim’s mother’s home, Rogers and Ferreira accompanied the victim back to his apartment to retrieve his ATM card to return to the bank, where the victim withdrew $500. Back at the victim’s apartment, they ordered the victim to strip of his clothing and warned him to say nothing about what transpired.

Following the crimes, the victim called his parents, who in turn called 911. Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office robbery detectives tracked the crimes to Rogers and Ferreira, including using the license plate recognition camera system to show that the suspects followed the victim into Metairie from New Orleans.

The detectives determined that the suspect Toyota 4Runner belonged to Rogers. Shown a photographic lineup, the victim identified Rogers as one of the perpetrators.

The U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force found and arrested Rogers three days after the incident, while he sat in his SUV on Spain Street in the Faubourg Marigny. Detectives found the pistol and property that was taken in the crimes in the SUV, including marijuana taken from the victim’s apartment.

Rogers’ attorney denied crimes were committed, saying his client was helping to collect a debt and that the victim willingly provided the property.

The victim pleaded guilty last year to possession of marijuana less than 14 grams, a misdemeanor. The charge stems from the marijuana taken from his apartment, which was found in Rogers’ SUV. He received a deferred sentence.

In June 2021, meanwhile, Ferreira pleaded guilty as charged to the armed robbery, second-degree kidnapping and aggravated burglary offenses, and to seven narcotics offenses. Judge Frank Brindisi of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced Ferreira to 20 years in prison. Judge Brindisi separately sentenced Ferreira to six months in jail after finding him in contempt of court for refusing to answer questions on Tuesday, while testifying in Rogers’ trial.

Judge Brindisi is scheduled to sentence Rogers on Friday (Jan. 27).

Assistant District Attorneys Kristen Landrieu and Carolyn Chkautovich prosecuted the case.