Tag: obstruction of justice

Nathaniel Hernandez guilty of murder in stabbing, beating death of his girlfriend

A Jefferson Parish jury on Thursday (July 6) found Nathaniel Hernandez guilty of brutally stabbing and beating his girlfriend to death before dragging her body into a West Bank wooded area to hide it and setting her car on fire to eliminate evidence. 

Hernandez, 43, of Marrero, who used the name Nathan Mendoza and has a history of physically abusing women, was convicted as charged of the second-degree murder of Sara Torello, 32, and of obstruction of justice for tampering with evidence. 

The mother of a young son whom she dropped off at his New Orleans school within hours of her death, Torello suffered 22 stab wounds, including 10 to her head and neck, one of which pierced her right carotid artery.  

“The defendant and the victim, Sara Torello, had a violent relationship,” Assistant District Attorney Piper Didier told jurors in opening statements on Tuesday. “You will find him guilty as charged. Hold him accountable.” 

“Twenty-two stab wounds, each time, each stab, each punch: Specific intent to kill,” Assistant District Attorney Leo Aaron told jurors in closing argument Thursday in urging them to find Hernandez guilty as charged. “Twenty-two times, over and over and over again. He wanted her dead, and he was not going to stop until she was.” 

At about 9:30 a.m., on Nov. 17, 2022, Jefferson Parish Drainage Department employees were clearing a canal bank in the 3800 block of Alex Kornman Drive in Harvey when they witnessed Hernandez beating and stabbing Torello inside her Honda CRV. 

Torello screamed for help. One of the parish employees called 911, telling the operator they needed police immediately because he was killing her. Hernandez pulled Torello out of the driver’s seat and into the passenger’s seat. He then drove away. Another employee used his cell phone to record a video of the CRV being driven away. “He killed her, bro!”, one of the workers is heard saying in the video. 

Another employee got the license plate number, enabling the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office to determine that Torello owned the CRV. As a search was underway for the victim and suspect, deputies spoke with Torello’s father, who informed them that she was in a violent and tumultuous, on-again, off-again relationship with Hernandez. 

Detectives then went to Hernandez’s residence in Marrero. There, the detectives learned that Hernandez had been at the residence at about 10:30 a.m. and departed with a gasoline container.  

At about 2:20 p.m., the Sheriff’s Office was notified of a car fire in a wooded area in the 700 block of Churchill Parkway in Avondale. It was Torello’s CRV, which Hernandez drove deep into the wooded area on a trail that was too narrow to be used by fire trucks.  

Nearby, deputies found Torello’s body beneath branches and sticks. At the autopsy, the forensic pathologist determined that scratches on her back were consistent with her being dragged through the wooded area.   

The Sheriff’s Office scoured the wooded area using canines and drones in search of Hernandez. At about 6:30 p.m., he emerged from the woods into a clearing the Sheriff’s Office used as a staging area for the search operation. He was arrested. 

When interviewed by detectives, Hernandez said he “floated” into the wooded area and asserted that a detective might have killed Torello. He admitted that he had been in the CRV with Torello, and that they fought. But he said he left the vehicle and never killed her. 

Hernandez’s hoodie, which he was seen wearing earlier that day, was found near the incinerated CRV. It had Torello’s blood on it. 

Among his belongings when he was arrested was a lighter and box of LD 100s cigarettes with the top missing. Near the burnt CRV, detectives found the partially burned top of that cigarette box, further placing Hernandez at the crime scene. 

Hernandez already had been convicted of battery on a dating partner involving a previous girlfriend in 2020, jurors learned this week. 

Jurors also heard testimony showing that he physically abused Torello at least four times during the two months before her death. In one of those incidents, she hid from Hernandez in the women’s restroom at a West Bank pharmacy and called her father for help. In another, she showed up at an emergency room for treatment of injuries, claiming that a group of women beat her. A man believed to be Hernandez was in the waiting room. He vanished before police arrived. 

Jurors, who heard testimony from 27 state witnesses over a 2-day period, deliberated less than 1 ½ hours before returning with the verdicts just after lunch. 

Judge Michael Mentz of the 24th Judicial District Court set sentencing for Aug. 19. 

Assistant District Attorneys Piper Didier and Leo Aaron prosecuted the case. 

 

 

 

Byron Spottsville convicted of murdering man in Westwego playground

A Jefferson Parish jury on Thursday night (July 9) found Byron Spottsville guilty of gunning down a 26-year-old man at a Westwego playground while trying to rob him. 

Spottsville, 23, of Westwego, was convicted as charged of the second-degree murder of Zashaun Espinoza. He also was convicted of obstruction of justice for hindering the investigation: He hid the clothing he wore during the killing and his Smith & Wesson 9mm semiautomatic pistol, along with property he took from the victim in a nearby wooded area. 

Espinoza, of Marrero,  was shot seven times on April 30, 2025, while in Fred Dorsey Playground, at 38 Norton St. Spottsville, who had a history of opioid addiction, lived next to the playground with his grandparents. After texting people that day in an unsuccessful quest to find narcotics, Spottsville targeted Espinoza believing he had the opioids that his body craved. 

In his final moments of life, Espinoza was seated on the bleachers, his ear buds in his hands, while waiting for his girlfriend to pick him up. The couple had been exchanging text messages. Spottsville, dressed in black and carrying a black ski mask, approached Espinoza, believing he had illegal narcotics. Evidence suggests that when Spottsville brandished his pistol, Espinoza tried to run. Spottsville opened fire and continued to shoot while moving toward his victim. 

Of the eight bullets he fired, seven struck Espinoza in a tight grouping, Dr. Timothy Scanlan, who was qualified as an expert in crime scene reconstruction, blood stain pattern analysis and firearms and toolmark examination, noted in testimony. One of the bullets struck Espinoza in the back of his thigh, breaking his femur and leaving him unable to run. He fell to the ground. 

Spottsville then fired his final bullets.  “He stood over that man and shot him at least twice while he was helpless and incapacitated on the ground,” Assistant District Attorney Tommy Block told jurors Thursday in closing argument. 

“Byron Spottsville walked out of his house that day with a ski mask and a gun to get those pills no matter what it took,” Assistant District Attorney Sarah Helmstetter told jurors in opening statements this week. “Byron Spottsville walked out of that house that day and pulled that trigger eight times. Eight. He missed once. One time. He walked up to Zashaun Espinoza, and he took his life.” 

Before fleeing, Spottsville ripped from Espinoza’s dying body the shoulder bag he believed contained narcotics, which he wanted for himself. When police located it later, Espinoza’s bag contained only a bottle of cologne and a bracelet. 

Forensic evidence showed the bag had Espinoza’s blood on it and on both sides of the zipper, consistent with Spottsville rifling through the stolen property. Espinoza’s Louisiana Purchase Card was located along a fence line, confirming that Spottsville had gone through the victim’s bag before discarding it in a nearby vacant lot that was covered with overgrown brush and trees. 

Spottsville also stripped off the clothing and mask he wore during the homicide and hid the items in the underbrush. He wrapped the murder weapon in his hoody before secreting it in a 55-gallon oil drum in the lot. All of it was found in proximity to Espinoza’s property.   

Having removed his clothing, Spottsville then stole a blue bath towel from the back porch of a nearby residence and wrapped it around his waist. He walked back to his grandparents’ home in full view of the Westwego Police Department officers who were responding to the shooting scene. 

In doing so, he drew extraordinary attention to himself, leading police to seek him out for questioning in connection with the murder. The police initially inquired as to why he wore nothing but a bath towel. Spottsville immediately denied knowledge of the shooting. 

“Westwego police weren’t asking him about it,” Assistant DA Helmstetter said of the murder. “They were asking him why he was walking around the neighborhood in a bath towel. He told his grandmother that he was showering at his girlfriend’s house, then told police he went to a vacant house to shower. It made no sense. … He leaves his house with running water to go to an abandoned house to shower?” 

Eventually, Spottsville confessed that he shot Espinoza asserting self-defense, but only after a detective raised self-defense when asking why he shot Espinoza. Police found no firearms in Espinoza’s possession when investigating the murder.  

Espinoza suffered gunshot wounds to his forehead, his cheek, his neck, his torso and his left thigh. The bullet that struck him in the neck traveled through his skull and exited the top of his head. That trajectory is consistent with Espinoza lying on his back when that bullet entered his body, Dr. Scanlan, the crime scene reconstruction expert, testified. 

“These wounds are not consistent with self-defense at all,” Assistant DA Helmstetter told jurors. 

While held in the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna a year after his arrest and only weeks before his trial, Spottsville told a family member in a recorded telephone conversation that he and Espinoza had an altercation in the park and that he shot Espinoza only after he reached for Spottsville’s pistol when he brandished it. Spottsville then claimed self-defense. Dr. Scanlan provided testimony at trial that rebutted Spottsville’s claim of self-defense as being inconsistent with the physical and forensic evidence found on the crime scene. 

At trial and during closing arguments to the jury, Spottsville’s attorneys did not dispute that he shot and killed Espinoza. They attempted to put forth a hybrid defense of self-defense while also describing Spottsville’s actions as manslaughter, a lesser grade of homicide that carries a sentence of up to 40 years in prison. Second-degree murder, with which Spottsville was indicted, carries a mandatory life sentence in prison without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence. 

The defense pointed out that there were no eyewitnesses to the shooting, and the only evidence the police had to identify the shooter was the statement that Spottsville gave. The defense attorneys argued that Spottsville legally purchased the pistol from a pawn shop (the receipt was still in his wallet), and that he did so for protection. And they said that Spottsville directed police to where he stashed his clothes, the pistol and Espinoza’s bag. 

Defense attorneys portrayed Spottsville as having been hospitalized for “severe depression,” in part because of the deaths of his mother and an uncle who overdosed on drugs claiming Spottsville’s drug addiction was a result of him self-medicating with opioids to treat his depression.  

Assistant DA Block said Spottsville was guilty of second-degree murder, whether because he had the specific intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm upon Espinoza, or that he killed Espinoza while trying to rob him – known as felony-murder.  

“He’s not sorry for what he did,” Assistant DA Block told jurors. “He’s sorry he got caught. He’s sorry for himself.” 

“What the defense wants you to do is give Byron Spottsville a break,” Assistant DA Helmstetter told jurors in closing argument. “But I submit to you that Byron Spottsville doesn’t deserve a break.” 

Jurors deliberated about 1 ½ hours before returning with their unanimous verdicts. 

Judge R. Christopher Cox of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Spottsville on Aug. 17. 

Assistant District Attorneys Sarah Helmstetter and Tommy Block prosecuted the case. 

 

For shooting a man in the back in Kenner, Shyheem Love convicted of attempted murder, other crimes

A Jefferson Parish jury on Tuesday night (Oct 3) convicted Shyheem Love of shooting a 61-year-old man in the back when he was criminally barred from possessing guns, and then from the parish jail tried to concoct a scheme to pay the victim $5,000 to recant.

Love, 28, of LaPlace, is guilty as charged of attempted second-degree murder, simple criminal damage of property and of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, jurors decided. He additionally was convicted of attempted obstruction of justice.

The shooting happened Dec. 22, 2021, in the 1600 block of Newport Place in Kenner, just outside Love’s girlfriend’s apartment. She had just been released from the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna and needed a ride to Kenner. A 61-year-old family friend with whom she had had sexual encounters in the past gave her that ride in his work van. He had taken with him her three young children to get their mother from the jail.

Outside her apartment, the woman was retrieving her children from the man’s work van to bring them inside. That’s when the man noticed Love standing nearby.

Love asked to speak with the man. He then asked the man to exit his van. The man refused. Love then fired three or four bullets at the van. The man sped away to his home in the 3600 block of Loyola Drive in Kenner. Once home, he noticed his back was wet with his own blood. The Kenner Police Department was notified.

After the man was treated and released from a hospital, he identified Love as the shooter by selecting his image in a photographic lineup. The man was familiar with Love but knew him only by his first name.

Love was arrested. While awaiting trial in the parish jail in Gretna, Love made numerous phone calls to his father and to his girlfriend. Knowing that the phone calls are recorded, he nonetheless made efforts to buy the victim’s silence through a $5,000 payoff. Love attempted to conceal his scheme through referring to it as “playing Monopoly,” a reference to the board game.

Love was convicted of attempted second-degree murder for shooting the victim; simple criminal damage to property valued at between $1,000 and $50,000 for damaging the victim’s work van with the bullets; and of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm (he was convicted in 2015 of second-degree battery in St. John the Baptist Parish). Love was charged with obstruction of justice for his scheme to get the victim to recant, but jurors returned with the verdict of attempted obstruction of justice.

The jury that was seated on Monday deliberated about 1 ½ hours before returning with its verdicts about 7 p.m., Tuesday. Judge Michael Mentz of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Love on Nov. 2.

Assistant District Attorneys Leo Aaron and Molly Love prosecuted the case.

Daniel Tenner sentenced to life plus 139 years for murdering Mississippi woman

A Jefferson Parish judge on Friday (Sept. 15) sentenced Daniel Tenner to life plus 139 years in prison for his conviction of killing a Mississippi woman while robbing her during a cell phone sale they arranged through social media.

Tenner, 21, of Jackson, Miss., shot Morgan Tyrone in the back of her head after she drove from her home in Pascagoula, Miss., to the West Bank to purchase an iPhone 13 for $300 on the evening of April 10, 2022. She died in the driver’s seat of her minivan.

Tyrone was 24. She was murdered in front of her partner and her partner’s 13-month-old son who was in a child seat.

Tenner used a woman’s Facebook account to communicate with Tyrone via Facebook Marketplace. Tyrone believed she was negotiating the purchase with a woman.

A Jefferson Parish jury on Aug. 15 found Tenner guilty as charged of first-degree murder, armed robbery and obstruction of justice in connection with the crimes.

Click here to read about the trial and conviction.

Tenner appeared Friday before 24th Judicial District Judge Donald “Chick” Foret to receive the sentences.

Tyrone’s older brother, mother and partner provided victim-impact testimony. Before announcing the sentence, Judge Foret praised the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office homicide detectives for quickly solving the case and lectured Tenner, referring from the 29 pages of notes he said he jotted down during the trial.

Judge Foret noted testimony from the forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy: Tenner placed the pistol barrel to Tyrone’s neck and fired, the bullet severing her spinal cord and killing her instantly. He noted that Tenner shot the woman in front of her partner and the toddler. “This is as bad as it gets, Mr. Tenner,” Judge Foret said.

The punishment for first-degree murder is mandatory life in prison without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence. Judge Foret sentenced Tenner to 99 years for the armed robbery and 40 years for the obstruction of justice – both the maximum sentences. Judge Foret ran the sentences consecutively, or back-to-back.

“If I could give you more, I’d give you more,” Judge Foret told Tenner. “This is a tragic thing you’ve done. You’ve ruined these peoples’ lives.”

The District Attorney’s Office did not seek the death penalty.

Assistant District Attorneys LaShanda Webb and Brittany Beckner prosecuted the case.

Daniel Tenner convicted of murdering Mississippi woman during West Bank armed robbery

A Jefferson Parish jury on Tuesday night (Aug. 15) convicted Daniel Tenner of killing a Mississippi woman while robbing her during a cell phone sale arranged through social media.

Tenner, 21, of Jackson, Miss., is guilty as charged of the first-degree murder of Morgan Tyrone, 24, of Pascagoula, Miss., jurors unanimously decided after three hours of deliberations.

On the evening of April 10, 2022, Tyrone, her 22-year-old partner and their 13-month-old son traveled from Pascagoula to the West Bank so Tyrone could purchase an iPhone 13 for $300. Tyrone and a person she believed was a woman had been discussing the transaction through Facebook Marketplace. It was Tenner using a woman’s Facebook account.

Tenner directed Tyrone to an apartment complex in the 300 block of Friedrichs Road in unincorporated Gretna. There, Tenner approached the Tyrone’s minivan’s driver’s side window. During the ensuing discussion, he showed the phone he purportedly wanted to sell. He asked if they had the money and then asked if they had a tool with which he could remove the phone’s SIM card.

During that time, Tyrone and Tenner were hesitant to exchange the cash and phone. Growing doubtful that the transaction would occur, Tyrone turned away to put the cash on the minivan’s center console. That’s when Tenner brandished the pistol, pointed it at the left rear side of Tyrone’s head and shot her without provocation.

He then pointed the pistol at Tyrone’s partner in the front passenger’s seat and demanded the cash. He reached over Tyrone’s body to grab the cash and then ran away.

Tyrone’s partner called 911, but not knowing where she was, she flagged a passerby who was able to give the 911 operator their location.

Immediately after shooting Tyrone, Tenner fled to a nearby apartment and then to Jackson, Miss. The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office received a tip via Crimestoppers identifying Tenner as the killer and giving his location. A U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force found and arrested Tenner in Jackson on May 17, 2022.

Sheriff’s Office detectives confirmed Tenner’s whereabouts, including placing him at the murder scene and fleeing north toward Jackson, by using his cell phone records.

During the 1 ½-hour interview with a detective, Tenner confessed. At its conclusion, the detective left Tenner alone in the room with pen and paper. Tenner penned a statement in which he admitted shooting Tyrone but asserted he did so because she “was grabbing something” or thought she was taking his iPhone. “I was giving the phone to you guys for a cheap price,” he wrote. “Yes, I am truly sorry with what happen [sic]. I am. I didn’t mean for nothing like that to happen.”

Jurors watched a video recording of that interview and read Tenner’s statement.

Tenner’s public defenders argued their client was not guilty. They asserted that he was armed because he was meeting strangers at night. Tenner became fearful when Tyrone turned away from him, the defense asserted. They also described it as “a tragic accident.” They said that Tenner did not have specific intent to kill or inflict great bodily harm, which are necessary elements of proving murder.

In closing argument Tuesday, Assistant District Attorney LaShanda Webb reminded jurors that Tenner threatened to kill Tyrone’s partner if she didn’t give him the cash.

“What more do you need to prove intent?” Webb argued. “If it wasn’t about robbery, why would he even take the money? Why would he reach over Morgan, who he just killed, to take the money?”

In addition to the murder, jurors found Tenner guilty of armed robbery and obstruction of justice – for discarding the firearm he used to kill Tyrone.

Judge Donald “Chick” Foret of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Tenner to a mandatory life sentence in prison on Sept. 15. The District Attorney’s Office did not seek the death penalty.

Assistant District Attorneys LaShanda Webb and Brittany Beckner prosecuted the case.