Tag: second-degree murder

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. 

 

 

 

Miker Ginorio convicted of murdering his father with a baseball bat

A Jefferson Parish jury on Thursday evening (Aug. 6) found Miker Ginorio guilty of beating his father to death with a wooden baseball bat in their Gretna home. 

Ginorio, 42, is guilty of second-degree murder in the March 31, 2020, death of Carlos Ginorio Sr., 69. The Gretna Police Department responded to complaints involving the elder Ginorio and his son at the residence in the 2500 block of Claire Avenue numerous times during the year leading up to the homicide. On the day before the murder, a neighbor heard Ginorio yell at his father, “I will kill you tonight.” 

“This circle of domestic violence involving Mr. (Carlos) Ginorio was a sick and sad circle,” Assistant District Attorney Brooke Harris told jurors in opening statements Monday.  

“This is a gruesome attack,” Assistant District Attorney Taylor Somerville told jurors in closing argument Thursday. “This is a personal attack. This is domestic violence.” 

An expert in crime scene reconstruction and blood spatter pattern analysis, Dr. Timothy Scanlan, testified that the elder Ginorio was sitting on his sofa when Ginorio struck him in the head from behind. It was the first of at least seven blows to the head. 

A struggle followed in the kitchen, where at 8:34 p.m., the father tried to dial his cell phone. He was unable to complete the dial, and there were no more calls from that phone afterward (police later found the phone under the kitchen table). 

The attacks culminated in the rear bedroom, where the body was later found. The bloody baseball bat was leaning against the wall next to the body. 

At 8:57 p.m., the front door to the residence was opened and closed for the last time before the body was found the following day, according to the home security system records detectives obtained. 

Hours later, at about 4 a.m., on April 1, 2020, police in Jennings, La., responded to a complaint about a man in a fast-food restaurant parking lot in that Jefferson Davis Parish city about 180 miles west of Gretna. It was Ginorio, who was in his father’s Toyota Camry. He had cash but no identification. Because he committed no crime there, the police suggested he sleep at a nearby motel.  

Soon after, police received a complaint about someone driving erratically. It was Ginorio again. This time, the police arrested him on a charge of public intoxication. Ginorio mentioned something about a baseball bat. The police determined that he was driving his father’s car and so asked Gretna police to contact the elder Ginorio about whether his son had permission to have the vehicle. 

A Gretna police officer received no response when he knocked on the Ginorio residence door. Gretna PD reached another of the Ginorio sons. That son went to the Claire Avenue residence to check on his father. After receiving no response, the son notified Gretna PD to inform them that he would force entry. 

Gretna PD dispatched an officer to the residence. By the time the officer arrived, the son had already found his father’s body. He was “physically hysterical,” Assistant DA Harris told jurors. Neighbors also emerged from the residence. 

The officer went inside and found “a blood bath,” with blood on the walls, the ceiling and even smeared across the thermostat that was set at 59 degrees, Assistant DA Harris said.  

“Mr. Ginorio Sr. was beaten so badly that his skull was fractured in multiple places. His face was nearly unrecognizable,” she told jurors. 

When questioned by Gretna detectives, Ginorio appeared to know that his father was dead, even though the officers said nothing to him about the elder man having died. Ginorio eventually said he had been at the residence with his father, and two men he knew as “Stank” and “Tall Man” arrived with plans to beat his father with baseball bats. He said his father talked these men into allowing him to leave. So, Ginorio asserted, he drove away in his father’s car. 

The cash that Ginorio had when arrested in Jennings had his father’s blood on it, according to a DNA analysis. Shorts in the car also had blood on it. In the bathroom at the Claire Avenue residence, police found a glove with the elder Ginorio’s blood on the exterior and Ginorio’s DNA on the inside. 

“All evidence points to Miker,” Assistant DA Harris said. “All science points to Miker.” 

At trial, Giornio’s attorneys argued that he did not kill his father. They told jurors that detectives failed to rule out Ginorio’s brother as a suspect. They also said that at least four civilians had entered the house before police arrived, calling it “a contaminated crime scene.” On the matter of DNA, the defense attorneys argued that the father and son both lived in the same residence, so it would be reasonable to believe that both men’s genetic material would be in the house. 

Jurors who were selected on Monday deliberated about an hour before returning with their unanimous verdict. 

Judge Stephen Grefer of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Ginorio on Aug. 26. 

Assistant District Attorneys Brooke Harris and Taylor Somerville prosecuted the case. 

Lifer Leon Ruffin Jr. convicted of escaping JPSO custody after faking illness, gets another 32 years in prison

A Jefferson Parish jury on Tuesday (July 14) deliberated about 30 minutes in finding Leon “Mookie Mook” Ruffin Jr. guilty of emptying a canister of pepper spray into the face of a deputy, leaving her incapacitated, before escaping from custody at a West Bank hospital in the deputy’s marked vehicle. 

Ruffin, 53, of Algiers, was convicted as charged of aggravated escape, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and battery on a police officer. 

Separately, he was convicted of conspiring with his wife, Shelita Ruffin, to smuggle a cigarette lighter and cigarettes into the parish jail and of possessing contraband in the facility. 

Ruffin already is serving a life sentence at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola for murdering Gannon Johnson in Avondale three years ago. He was held in the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna awaiting trial for that murder when he escaped on Feb. 25, 2025. 

Immediately following the reading of the verdict on Tuesday morning, Judge Stephen Enright of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced Ruffin to 32 years in prison and ordered him returned to Angola. Judge Enright ran Tuesday’s sentences consecutively to the life sentence that he gave Ruffin for the murder almost two years ago. 

“He can go back to Angola just as soon as they can get him there,” Judge Enright announced. He added he would personally call Angola’s warden with the request to “send the van immediately” to retrieve him from Jefferson Parish. 

While awaiting trial for the Avondale murder, Ruffin concocted an escape plan that included his feigning a medical episode in the parish jail.  The episode included faking a seizure, which was documented by deputies’ body-worn cameras. He also stole a canister of pepper spray from a deputy’s untended service belt in the jail’s medical unit. 

The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, which operates the parish jail, sent Ruffin to Ochsner’s West Bank campus in unincorporated Gretna in an ambulance for evaluation.  

He was confined to a wheelchair, and because of an immobilizing medical boot on his right foot and leg and bandages on his left wrist, he was not shackled at the ankles and wrists. He likely smuggled the pepper spray canister out of the parish jail by hiding it in his medical boot. 

Several hours after he was hospitalized, he was released and was to be returned to the jail. Two nurses wheeled him out of the hospital and helped place him in the rear seat of a marked Sheriff’s Office vehicle. It was parked outside a non-public entrance to the hospital. 

Moments later, he complained to the transport deputy that his foot was hurting. When the deputy investigated, Ruffin emptied the canister of pepper spray into her face, temporarily blinding her. He removed the medical boot from his leg and discarded it at the scene, ran around the vehicle, got into the driver’s seat and sped away. The deputy fired her service weapon three times at Ruffin in an effort to stop his escape. 

The incident was recorded by the hospital video surveillance system. The evidence clearly implicates Ruffin, Assistant District Attorney Molly Love told jurors Tuesday in closing argument. 

“This isn’t a ‘maybe he did it,’” Assistant DA Love said. “This isn’t ‘possibly he did it.’ It’s him.” 

Ruffin drove the JPSO vehicle to the 3600 block of Gen. de Gaulle Drive in Algiers, where he abandoned it in a business parking lot. He ditched his jail clothing behind the building. He was at large for two days before a U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force located and arrested him at a motel in New Orleans East. 

Ruffin never denied his escape and, in front of jurors on Tuesday morning as closing arguments were about to begin, he loudly proclaimed he would be convicted. His attorney urged jurors to find him not guilty. The attorney assailed the Sheriff’s Office and the deputy who was pepper sprayed because she fired her service weapon twice outside the hospital. 

Assistant District Attorney Piper Didier defended the deputy’s actions in closing argument. 

“He was facing a charge of second-degree murder,” Assistant DA Didier said. “He was awaiting trial for second-degree murder. One of the most violent crimes. Of course she fired her service weapon. … That’s just shifting blame. The defendant is a grown man. He did what he did. He needs to be held accountable for what he did.” 

Ruffin’s repeated outbursts in the courtroom lead Judge Enright to bar him from the courtroom after he proclaimed he would be convicted. Ruffin observed the remainder of the trial from the parish jail via Zoom and did not oppose Judge Enright’s request to announce the sentencing immediately after the verdict was announced. 

“He’s not coming back into this courtroom because of his antics in the past,” Judge Enright said. 

Ruffin’s wife, Shelita Ruffin, 54, of Algiers, pleaded guilty in March 2025 to conspiracy to introduce contraband into the parish jail. She received a 2-year prison sentence. 

Ruffin’s cohort in the escape, Richard R. Robinson, 34, of Harvey, pleaded guilty Monday to accessory after the fact to simple escape and of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. He received a 5-year sentence. Robinson drove Ruffin to the New Orleans East motel where he was arrested and provided him with food during his brief stay there.  

On July 9, 2023, Ruffin shot Johnson, 53, several times while Johnson jumped the battery of a rental car Ruffin was using. The shooting occurred in front of Johnson’s home in the 400 block of Federal Drive in Avondale. 

Ruffin pretended to have engine trouble and asked Gannon to use his jumper cables. As Gannon removed the jumper cables from Ruffin’s battery, Ruffin emerged from the driver’s seat of his car and shot Gannon six times, including in the body and head.  

Upon hearing the gunfire, Gannon’s fiancée walked out of the front door of their house. Ruffin shot at her as she fled back inside. Ruffin retrieved his jumper cables and drove away. He later returned to the neighborhood and watched deputies investigate the murder. 

Detectives found surveillance video from Gannon’s home that recorded the shooting. It showed Ruffin touching the hood of Johnson’s car. The Sheriff’s Office lifted one of Ruffin’s fingerprints from the hood, helping identify him as the killer. He was arrested at his Holiday Drive home in Algiers four days after he killed Johnson. 

When questioned by detectives, Ruffin, who grew up with Johnson in the Avondale area, confessed. Ruffin was convicted by a jury in September 2024 of the murder and was later sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison. 

He additionally was convicted in that trial of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm (for which he received a 20-year sentence), aggravated assault with a firearm (for which he was sentenced to 10 years in prison), simple criminal damage to property (for which he was sentenced to 15 years in prison), and obstruction of justice (for which he was sentenced to 40 years in prison). 

He was prohibited from possessing firearms because of a 2009 conviction of armed robbery in Pike County, Miss. He was on parole for that crime when he killed Gannon. 

Assistant District Attorneys Piper Didier and Molly Love prosecuted Ruffin in the escape case. Assistant District Attorneys Tommy Block and Piper Didier prosecuted Ruffin in the murder 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. 

 

Jamal Harris guilty of murdering Marrero woman, her father

A Jefferson Parish judge on Wednesday (April 29) found Jamal Harris guilty of murdering a Marrero woman and her father after her dating app meeting turned bad. 

Harris, 41, who also used the name Jarmaal Harris, is guilty as charged of two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of Jessica Troulliet, 35, and her father, Robert Templet, 56, on Oct. 3, 2020. 

A convicted felon who was on parole when he committed the murders, Harris met Troulliet at her Marrero home after they connected through a dating app. Troulliet was not impressed with Harris’ looks, and so she wanted to end the date as soon as it began. 

Templet joined his daughter as she gave Harris a ride to Marrero. From the back seat of Troulliet’s Mercury Mountaineer, Harris shot the woman and her father in the backs of their heads. A driver passing the parked Mercury Moutaineer called 911 believing the people were passed out in the vehicle at Fourth Street and Garden Road. Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies found that the victims had been shot and died. 

“He executed two innocent people because he got his feelings hurt that he isn’t sexy,” Assistant District Attorney Taylor Somerville said in closing argument, turning to Harris. “You took away a mother to three boys, a daughter, a nanny and a granddaughter. And you took away this family’s father, pawpaw, brother and friend.”

Detectives discovered that Troulliet’s cell phone was missing. They tracked the device’s last location to a residence on Mistletoe Street in New Orleans’ Hollygrove neighborhood, where Harris’ relatives lived. The detectives further linked Harris to the murders through his cell phone communications and geo-location technology. 

A U.S. Marshals fugitive task force arrested Harris on Oct. 21, 2020, at his cousin’s residence on Center Street in Avondale. Harris initially refused to leave the residence. When arrested, task force members found an assault-style rifle in the residence. 

In addition to the murders, Harris was convicted of obstruction of justice for taking Troulliet’s cell phone to impede the investigation and two counts of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. Harris was prohibited from possessing firearms because of a 2007 conviction of armed robbery in Jefferson Parish. He was on parole for the armed robbery until October 2022. 

Harris waived a trial by jury, leaving it to 24th Judicial District Judge Donnie Rowan to weigh the evidence. Judge Rowan found Harris guilty of all charges and set the sentencing for May 8. 

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

Warren Smith convicted of fatally shooting brother-in-law in Kenner

A Jefferson Parish jury on Wednesday (April 22) found Warren Smith guilty of shooting his brother-in-law three times, including twice in the back in Kenner two years ago.

Smith, 35, of Kenner, was convicted of manslaughter in the Aug. 4, 2024, death of Reginald Scott Jr., 43.

Both men lived in an apartment complex in the 4200 block of Chateau Boulevard. They had unresolved hostilities dating to 2011, when Smith’s sister, who was married to Scott, committed suicide. Smith believed Scott pushed his sister to take her own life.

Immediately after the shooting, Smith was heard saying, “Reg ain’t gonna mess with me no more. I shot him.” Smith then fled to Baton Rouge, where he was arrested several hours later by the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Smith purchased the 9mm semiautomatic pistol about two weeks before he shot Scott and “was waiting for any opportunity to kill his brother-in-law,” Assistant District Attorney Molly Love told jurors Wednesday in closing argument.

“This wasn’t self-defense,” ADA Love told jurors. “Warren wasn’t scared of Reginald when he stood over his body making sure he finished the job, making sure he wasn’t going to mess with him anymore.”

Two family members called the Kenner Police Department after the shooting, including Scott’s son, who found his mortally wounded father on the ground outside his apartment. Police found bloody footprints that led from Scott’s apartment to Smith’s apartment. The footprints were found on the carpeted stairs inside Smith’s apartment, leading to Smith’s bedroom.

Smith stood trial on a charge of second-degree murder. Jurors deliberated about three hours in finding him guilty of the lesser offense, which carries a punishment of up to 40 years in prison.

Judge Stephen Enright of the 24th Judicial District Court set sentencing for May 14.

Assistant District Attorneys Molly Love and Theresa King prosecuted the case.

Damon Bryant gets 515 years, Destin Smith gets 227 years in armed robbery spree and homicide

A Jefferson Parish judge on Tuesday (Feb. 10) sentenced a pair of West Bank half-bothers to hundreds of years in prison for their convictions for committing a string of armed robberies, and a shooting that left a Terrytown man dead.

Destin Smith, 26, of Algiers, and Damon Bryant, 28, of Avondale, were convicted by a jury on Jan. 31 of numerous charges in connection with the 2017 crime spree.

Judge Donnie Rowan of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced Smith to 227 years in prison and Bryant to 515 years in prison.

“I have to tell you that what you two did in this parish and in other parishes, I mean, we might as well go back in time and call you Bonnie and Clyde, we might as well call you Dillinger, we might as well call you a whole bunch of names, because you have no regard for human life. You terrorized them. That’s what you did. You terrorized these people, you with a shotgun, you with a handgun.”

Smith was convicted of manslaughter in the death of James Thomas Jr., 36. A De Le Salle High School graduate and father of a young son who drove a delivery truck for UPS, Thomas was shot outside his Terrytown apartment when Smith tried to carjack him.

“He lived with integrity and purpose,” Thomas’ mother said Tuesday in victim-impact testimony during the sentencing hearing. “And he was taken from me. … We had just exchanged messages while I was on a cruise. His last words to me were, ‘When are you coming home?’ I didn’t know that would be our final conversation.”

Smith additionally was convicted of conspiracy to commit armed robbery, attempted armed robbery and obstruction of justice. The jury acquitted Smith of five counts of armed robbery.

Smith’s later crimes in part were carried out to raise money to post bail for his half-brother and co-defendant during the 5-day-long the trial, Damon Bryant.

Bryant, 28, of Avondale, was convicted of carjacking and five counts of armed robbery.

A look at the crime spree shows:

  • At about 1:10 a.m., on July 11, 2017, a 24-year-old woman was seated in her boyfriend’s 2011 Mercury Sable in the 900 block of East Monterey Court in Terrytown. As she scrolled through Facebook on her mobile device, two men physically removed her from the car and drove away in it. Several hours later, her boyfriend found his car at an apartment complex in the 2300 block of Park Place Drive – where a relative of Bryant and Smith lived and where Thomas was later shot and killed. Bryant’s DNA was recovered from the steering wheel, leading to his arrest three weeks later. He was convicted of carjacking as a result. Judge Rowan on Tuesday sentenced Bryant to 20 years in prison to be served at hard labor.
  • Late on the morning of July 20, 2017, an employee of a breakfast restaurant in the 500 block of Behrman Highway in Terrytown was cleaning behind the business when he noticed two suspicious men approaching. As the employee attempted to use his cell phone to call the manager inside, the suspects forced him at gunpoint to knock on the rear door. When the manager opened it, the suspects forced their way inside, robbed a 32-year-old woman and a 29-year-old woman and got away with more than $2,600. At trial, jurors acquitted Smith of two counts of armed robbery. They convicted Bryant of two counts of armed robbery. Bryant was sentenced Tuesday to 99 years in prison for each count, for a total of 198 years in prison to be served at hard labor.
  • On the night of July 27, 2017, a 27-year-old woman was getting out of her 2013 Nissan Versa at her home in the 2900 block of North Monterey Court in Terrytown when two suspects approached her intent on robbing her. She dropped her purse and car keys, and the suspects fled with them in her car. Jurors acquitted Smith of armed robbery and convicted Bryant of the charge. Bryant was sentenced to 99 years in prison for robbing this woman, to be served at hard labor.
  • Bryant immediately drove the stolen Versa across the Huey P. Long Bridge to a restaurant where he once worked in the 2900 block of South Clearview Parkway in Elmwood. The stolen car was picked up by the license place recognition system, according to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office. They hopped a fence in the rear of the restaurant and at gunpoint forced two employees – a 42-year-old man and a 43-year-old man – into the office. They fled with more than $2,200 in cash. Bryant cut his right hand when hopping the fence and left blood droplets inside the business, including on the jacket worn by one of the victims – and into the stolen car when fleeing. Smith was charged with being Bryant’s accomplice, but jurors acquitted him. was convicted of two counts of armed robbery. On Tuesday, Bryant was sentenced to 99 years for each count, for a total of 198 years, to be served at hard labor.

A week after robbing the Elmwood restaurant, Bryant was arrested after he shot a man in Boutte, in St. Charles Parish, when attempting to rob him. Bryant spotted that man withdrawing a large amount of cash at a Jefferson Parish bank and then followed him to St. Charles Parish to attempt to rob him. He subsequently was linked to the Jefferson Parish crimes in part based on his DNA being recovered in the stolen Mercury Sable, the stolen Versa and inside the Elmwood restaurant.

After Bryant’s arrest, Smith continued the crime spree in Jefferson and Orleans parishes, in part to raise cash for Bryant’s bail and criminal defense. Smith carried out some of these crimes with his sister’s then-boyfriend, Devante J. Mays, 27, of New Orleans. Mays, who was charged separately, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit armed robbery and two counts of attempted armed robbery in August 2019 in exchange for a 10-year prison sentence.

A look at Smith’s ongoing crime spree shows:

  • On the morning of Aug. 12, 2017, James Thomas Jr. walked to his BMW parked near his apartment in the 2300 block of Park Place Drive. Standing next to his car, he encountered Smith, who was armed with a .20-gauge shotgun. During the carjacking attempt, Smith shot Thomas once in the left thigh. Smith fled to a relative’s apartment in the complex. Thomas died a short while later at a New Orleans hospital. “James was a big, gentle Teddy bear. He would give you the shirt off his back,” Thomas’ fiancée said in victim-impact testimony on Wednesday. Smith was charged with second-degree murder, but jurors convicted him of the lesser homicide charge of manslaughter. Smith was sentenced Tuesday to 40 years in prison.
  • Hours later, on the night of Aug. 12, 2017, two employees were at a discount store in the 7400 block of the Westbank Expressway – a 39-year-old woman and a 21-year-old woman – when two gunmen approached the front door. The business had been closed for the day, so the doors were locked. The gunmen were unable to get inside. Smith was convicted of two counts of attempted armed robbery and was sentenced Tuesday to 49 years in prison for each count, for a total of 98 years in prison. Mays separately pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted armed robbery.
  • On Aug. 12 and Aug. 13, 2017, a man in New Orleans East, a discount store in the Lower 9th Ward, a woman and her cab driver in Algiers and two employees and a customer at a breakfast restaurant in Algiers were robbed. Jurors in the Jefferson Parish trial heard testimony about the crimes that were committed in Orleans Parish, which formed the basis for the conspiracy to commit armed robbery charge in the Jefferson Parish case. In the New Orleans East robbery, the victim reported having his 2008 Mazda CX9 stolen. That vehicle was later recovered near Smith’s residence on Bacchus Street in Algiers. In it, police recovered a spent .20-gauge shotgun shell that was ballistically matched to the shotgun used to kill James Thomas Jr., in Terrytown. These crimes are the basis for Smith’s being convicted of conspiracy to commit armed robbery. He was sentenced Tuesday to 49 years in prison. Mays previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit armed robbery. In the Orleans Parish cases, Smith and Mays also pleaded guilty in 2019 to committing nine counts of armed robbery and one count of aggravated battery in Criminal District Court. Smith received a 12-year sentence and Mays was sentenced to 15 years by a New Orleans judge.
  • Smith also was convicted of obstruction of justice for getting rid of the .20-gauge shotgun he used to kill Thomas. For this, he was sentenced Tuesday to 40 years in prison.

New Orleans Police Department detectives who were investigating the spate of armed robberies arrested Smith and Mays in the Bacchus Street residence in Algiers on Aug. 14, 2017. Victims’ property from several of the robberies was recovered there, linking them to the crimes.

Assistant District Attorneys Taylor Somerville and Tommy Block prosecuted the case.

 

 

 

Lucien Bazley, convicted in Marrero manslaughter, sentenced to 60 years in prison

A Jefferson Parish judge on Thursday (Feb. 5) sentenced Lucien Bazley to 60 years in prison in finding that the Marrero man is a habitual offender. 

In his most recent felony conviction, Bazley, 50, was convicted by a jury in October of manslaughter in the Sept. 25, 2022, shooting of Wayne Martin. 

Martin was celebrating his 30th birthday at an Ames Boulevard lounge on the night he died. He was walking behind Bazley in an auto parts store parking lot across the street from the lounge when Bazley turned and shot him once in the right eye. Martin collapsed and died at the scene. 

Click here to read about the trial. 

Bazley, who asserted self-defense, had been charged with second-degree murder and of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm in connection with Martin’s death. At the time he killed Martin, Bazley was on parole for a 2008 conviction of possession of cocaine. As such, he was legally barred from possessing firearms. 

During his first trial in June 2025, a jury was unable to reach a verdict on the murder charge, leading to a mistrial on that count. However, jurors found him guilty of the illegal possession of a firearm, for which he later was sentenced to 20 years in prison. 

He was retried on the murder charge in October. That second jury found him guilty of the lesser offense of manslaughter. 

Judge R. Christopher Cox III of the 24th Judicial District Court on Dec. 8, 2025 sentenced Bazley to the maximum 40 years in prison for manslaughter. On Thursday, Judge Cox vacated that sentence and resentenced Bazley to 60 years in prison in finding that the convict is a career criminal. Bazley’s prior felony convictions were for narcotics, in 2004 and 2008.  

Judge Cox ran the 60-year sentence concurrent with the 20 years Bazley received last year for the illegal possession of a firearm conviction. 

Former Assistant District Attorney Matthew Whitworth as well as Assistant District Attorneys Sarah Helmstetter and Rachel Warren prosecuted the case. 

Lucien Bazley guilty of manslaughter in Marrero shooting

A Jefferson Parish jury on Monday (Oct. 20) found Lucien Bazley guilty of manslaughter, rejecting his assertion that he was defending himself when he shot a man in the face in a Marrero parking lot.

Bazley, 50, was on parole when he killed Wayne Martin on the night of Sept. 25, 2022. Martin, who was celebrating his 30th birthday, was shot in the right eye, collapsed and died in an Ames Boulevard auto parts business parking lot. Moments earlier, Martin, his older sister and a host of others were celebrating the occasion in a lounge across the street from the homicide scene.

Jurors declined to find Bazley guilty as charged of second-degree murder, opting instead to convict him of the lesser charge of manslaughter. It carries a sentence of up to 40 years in prison.

Bazley told jurors that he had been wrongly suspected on the streets of killing a man who was associated with Martin. Bazley alleged that Martin was walking behind him when he brandished a firearm and prepared to shoot him.

The incident, which was recorded by a nearby business’s video security system, shows Bazley walking ahead of Martin and without provocation, he turned and shot Martin. Martin immediately collapsed.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies found no firearms on Martin’s body on the scene, undercutting Bazley’s self-defense claim. A social media video later surfaced showing Martin dancing inside the lounge and brandishing what appeared to be a firearm. The state argued that Bazley’s defense belies reason that if he was in fear for his life, he would not have turned his back on man he says had threatened him.

“He did not kill Wayne Martin in self-defense,” Assistant District Attorney Sarah Helmstetter told jurors Monday in closing argument. “He turned around, shot Wayne Martin in the face and walked off, for 21 seconds, like nothing happened.”

The video shows Bazley calmly walking away as bystanders fled for safety. Twenty-one seconds later, Bazley was shot three times by an unknown gunman. Bazley stumbled away to his car.

He drove to his girlfriend’s home on Gentry Road, where he resided with members of her family. The Sheriff’s Office SWAT team arrested him there the following morning. The SWAT deputies lay siege to the house for an hour before Bazley surrendered.

Deputies encountered Bazley on the night before he killed Martin, in the same auto parts store parking lot. Bazley called 911 to report that someone had shot his BMW while he was seated in the car. However, on the night he killed Martin, he did not call 911, neither to report the shooting nor to seek medical assistance.

Because of his 2008 conviction of possession of marijuana and possession of cocaine, Bazley was prohibited from possessing firearms. On the night of the homicide, he took his girlfriend’s revolver without her knowledge and returned to the shooting scene from the previous night. “He was going to get revenge, some way, somehow,” Assistant DA Helmstetter told jurors.

This was the second time Bazley faced a Jefferson Parish jury for killing Martin. In June, Bazley, who represented himself without an attorney, was convicted of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, for which he has since been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

That first jury was unable to reach a verdict on the second-degree murder charge, leading to a mistrial and this month’s retrial.

On Monday, the second jury deliberated just over two hours in finding Bazley guilty of manslaughter. Judge R. Christopher Cox III of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Bazley on Nov. 13.

Assistant District Attorneys Matthew Whitworth, Sarah Helmstetter and Rachel Warren prosecuted the case.

Saleh ‘Sam’ Omar sentenced to maximum 40 years for Terrytown duct tape killing

A Jefferson Parish judge on Wednesday (June 25) sentenced Saleh “Sam” Omar to 40 years in prison for his conviction of killing a man by tightly wrapping his face and torso with duct tape, leaving him unable to free himself to breathe.

A jury on April 24 found Omar, 47, guilty of manslaughter in the death of Mohamed “Mo” Mezlini, 29. Omar was indicted with second-degree murder, but the jury found him guilty of the lesser offense.

In sentencing Omar to the maximum punishment for manslaughter, Judge Lee Faulkner of the 24th Judicial District Court noted Wednesday that Omar’s use of duct tape to kill Mezlini was “particularly heinous.”

“I believe the defendant got a windfall from the jury,” Judge Faulkner noted, when it found Omar guilty of the lesser offense. Second-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence.

Click here to read about the trial.

Omar owned a cell phone repair business in a strip mall on Terry Parkway. He previously employed Mezlini. The men had unspecified animosity that culminated in a vacant suite in that strip mall on Sept. 8, 2018.

With the help of his half-brother Yazan Omar, then aged 17, Omar lured Mezlini to that vacant suite. A fight ensued and ended with Omar binding Mezlini with duct tape. He left Mezlini in the locked suite and fled from the strip mall.

Seventeen minutes after Omar fled, Yazan Omar and two of Omar’s employees broke into the vacant suite and found Mezlini bound in duct tape. They removed the tape, attempted chest compressions and called 911. Mezlini died the following day. The Jefferson Parish Coroner’s Office said Mezlini died from asphyxia due to strangulation and smothering. His hyoid bone, in his throat, was also broken, indicating strangulation.

Omar fled to Central America, where he was arrested two weeks later in Panama and was returned to Jefferson Parish to face charges.

In December 2021, Yazan Omar, now 24, pleaded guilty to false imprisonment with a dangerous weapon and obstruction of justice in exchange for a 15-year prison sentence.

During Wednesday’s sentencing hearing, Omar’s attorney provided the testimony of character witnesses and arguments in seeking leniency.

On the state’s side, more than two-dozen people provided victim-impact statements to the court seeking justice for Mezlini and the maximum punishment for Omar.

“He had his whole life ahead of him,” Mezlini’s widow testified. She will never forgive Omar, she told the court. She noted that the coldness of how he used duct tape to kill her husband “demonstrates a level of violence and depravity beyond comprehension.”

Mezlini’s mother called him “the epitome of good character and ethics.” His father added, “My son did nothing to deserve what happened to him.”

Assistant District Attorneys Kristen Landrieu and Brendan Bowen prosecuted the case. They were assisted by Assistant District Attorneys Mallory Grefer and Darren Allemand.