A Jefferson Parish jury deliberated 25 minutes on Wednesday (Feb. 5) in finding Tyrone Constant guilty of trying to kill a 20-year-old employee of a West Bank pizza business by brutally attacking her with a machete-type knife.
Constant, 40, of Harvey, was convicted as charged of attempted second-degree murder in connection with the May 23, 2020 attack inside a business in the 1600 block of Gretna Boulevard.
The victim and her 52-year-old co-worker were the only employees working on that Saturday night during Memorial Day weekend. Constant had been in the business numerous times before. Both employees working that night were familiar with Constant by his first name, Tyrone.
Wearing a mask because of the COVID-19 pandemic and his head partially covered by a hoodie and cap, Constant walked in from the rain about 9 p.m. and asked the victim about whether the business was hiring. He placed the backpack he carried on the sales counter in front of him. He and the victim chatted.
Within two minutes of arriving and without provocation, Constant pulled a knife out of his backpack, jumped over the counter and chased both employees.
They fled out the rear door. The 52-year-old woman ran to a neighboring business to call 911, glancing back to see Constant hacking her coworker amid her screams. When the screaming stopped, she testified she thought the victim had died.
The victim played dead on the ground outside. After Constant fled, she returned to the inside of the business and eventually collapsed. Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies found her in a pool of her blood and suffering from extensive injuries. Gashes to her head suggested he had the intent to kill her. The victim eventually underwent 15 surgeries and years of physical therapy.
Detectives started the investigation with only the first name of the perpetrator based off the victim and witness’s statements. Detectives quickly received an anonymous tip about a possible suspect with the first name “Tyrone”. A photographic line-up was shown to the victim including that man. The victim did not recognize any of the photographs.
The following day, the victim’s co-worker contacted the Sheriff’s Office, providing detectives with Constant’s full name. The detectives later returned to the victim with a second photographic lineup, this one including Constant’s photograph. She immediately pointed out Constant.
The co-worker, when shown a lineup, selected Constant and said she was “100-percent certain” that he was the attacker.
On May 27, 2020, at about 1:15 a.m., a deputy patrolling Harvey spotted Constant in a convenience store in the 1600 block of Lapalco Boulevard. The deputy recognized Constant from a wanted bulletin associated with the attack and arrested him. The weapon Constant used has not been recovered.
Jurors also heard testimony about Constant previously having been fired from a pizza restaurant nearby. He had returned to his former workplace at a later date, drew a knife, and was forcibly removed by three employees.
At trial, Constant’s defense attorney challenged the veracity of the victim’s and coworker’s identifying his client as the perpetrator. He further assailed the Sheriff’s Office for failing to try to get fingerprints from the business to confirm the identity of the perpetrator.
Constant was tried in absentia because he refused to leave his cell at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center.
Judge Jacqueline Maloney of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Constant on Feb. 21.
Assistant District Attorneys Kristen Landrieu and Ashton Robinson prosecuted the case.