True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

Gun Battle at New Orleans Gun Store Leaves Three Dead

By HardBoiledNews Staff

NEW ORLEANS — Three people were killed and two others wounded when a raging gun battle erupted inside a News Orleans gun store and then spilled into a parking lot, police said.

The deadly fire fight at Jefferson Gun Outlet, a firearms store and shooting range, began when one man inside shot two people to death, sparking numerous customers, employees and other armed passersby to open fire,  the Jefferson Parish Sheriff office said.

Police say the man who triggered off the shootout was ultimately killed in the parking lot. Two others were injured as the gunfight moved outside, police said, but their injuries were not thought to be critical.

Police sources told Nola.com that detectives believed  the gunfire may have been sparked when the initial shooter argued with store employees who ordered him to unload an extended magazine from a pistol he carried into the business. Gun ranges generally forbid patrons to carry loaded weapons in the lobby.

Black Sheriff’s Deputy Denied Burial at ‘Whites Only’ Cemetery in Louisiana

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Darrell Semien’s widow was told the cemetery where he wanted to be buried was for whites only

OBERLIN, Louisiana  — It was a grave insult.

 A Louisiana widow was stunned when a small cemetery in her community  denied her the right to bury her husband, a sheriff’s deputy, because he was Black and that the burial ground was for whites only.

Karla Semien of Oberlin wrote on Facebook that a woman at the Oaklin Springs Cemetery in southwest Louisiana told her that her husband could not be buried there because it was for whites only.

“She stood in front of me and all my kids wow what a slap in the face. I just can’t believe in 2021 in oberlin Louisiana this is happening,” Semien wrote.

“To be told this is like we were nothing. He was nothing? He put his life on the line for them,” Semien told KPLC-TV on Wednesday. 

Days later, the board of the cemetery held an emergency meeting to remove the shocking clause that had been in their sales contracts since the 1950s.

This was the offending clause in the contract

H. Creig Vizena, board president for the cemetery said he was stunned and ashamed to learn that the family of Allen Parish Sheriff’s Deputy Darrell Semien, who died of cancer at age 55, had been told that he could not be buried at the cemetery because he was Black.

“It never came up,” says Vizena. “I take full responsibility for that. I’ve been the President of this board for several years now. I take full responsibility for not reading the by-laws.”

Vizena said when he told other members about the language, they all agreed it had to be fixed.

He said a relative of his was the woman who told the family about the race clause, and she was “relieved of her duties.”

Vizena said he apologized to the family and offered one of his own plots in the small cemetery, but the offer was turned down. The family said Semien couldn’t rest easily there.

“My dad wasn’t any man, he was a phenomenal man,” daughter Shayla Semien told KATC-TV. “He was a police officer in this same community for 15 years. He was denied a place to lay because of the color of his skin.”

Vizena said the episode is “a stain that’s going to be on our cemetery and our community for a long time.”

Man Sentenced to Life for $20 Marijuana Sale Set Free After 12 Years

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Fate Winslow got out of prison with help from the Innocence Project

NEW ORLEANS —  A homeless Louisiana man who was sentenced to life in prison for selling a $20 bag of marijuana to an undercover cop has been freed after 12 years behind bars.

Fate Winslow had been sentenced under the state’s repeat offender law, even though he had only committed nonviolent crimes. Has case attracted attention due to the harshness of his sentence for a minor crime. He spent more than a decade incarcerated at the notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.

“I was so happy to get out,” Winslow told WWL-TV after his release. “A life sentence for two bags of weed? I never thought something like that could happen.”

In 2008, Winslow was approached in Shreveport by undercover officers who asked him where they could get some marijuana. Winslow borrowed a bike, went and found some marijuana and came back to give it to the officers who then gave him $5 so he could buy some food, according to his attorneys at the Innocence Project New Orleans.

He had no history of selling drugs and his supporters said he was simply hungry and trying to get some food.

But Winslow had already been convicted of three previous non-violent crimes stretching from when he was a 17-year-old to when he was 36, making him susceptible to the state’s repeat offender law.

The Innocence Project New Orleans took up his case, appealing his life sentence on the grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel. He was eventually re-sentenced to time served. 

The director of the Innocence Project New Orleans, Jee Park, said Winslow received an “obscenely excessive sentence given his life circumstances and crime, and today, we are correcting that unconstitutional, inhumane sentence.”

Bad First Date Ends With Man Fatally Shooting Woman and Her Father

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Jamal Harris’ date said she thought he had a ‘pumpkin head’

NEW ORLEANS — An aggrieved ex-con gunned down a Louisiana woman and her father after a lousy first date in which she tried to beat a hasty retreat after texting a friend that the man had a “pumpkin head,” investigators said.

Jamal Harris, 36, of New Orleans, faces two counts of first-degree murder in the Oct. 3 shooting deaths of Jessica Troulliet, 35, and her 56-year-old father, Robert Templet Jr., whose bodies were found in her Mercury Mountaineer which was abandoned in Marrero, NOLA.com reported.

Both had been shot in the back in the head. Detectives suspect Harris — who was convicted of armed robbery in 2007 — killed the pair following an internet meetup that had gone south, Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s homicide Det. Steven Keller testified in court.

Keller cited text messages sent by Trouillet to a friend — as well as Harris’ statements to investigators — that showed the pair has gotten into a fight at her home during the date, which they set up on a dating app called Tagged.

“She said he did not look like his profile pic, and she [said] he looked like a pumpkin head,” the detective said of the woman’s texts. “She told him she had another date, and he had to leave.”

Keller said Harris admitted feeling insulted.

“He admitted being upset with her because she was speaking to another individual on the phone,” the detective testified.

Harris claimed he left Trouillet’s home at 9:30 p.m. and headed to his father’s house in Marrero, where his cousin, Jamal Gabriel, 34, picked him up, Keller testified.

But phone records showed that Trouillet picked up Harris in her SUV some 45 minutes later, and then texted a friend for help to “come to the house” to make Harris leave, Keller said.

The friend balked at the request and detectives believe Trouillet agreed to take Harris back to where she was picked up while her father went along for the ride, NOLA.com reported.

Investigators think Trouillet and Templet were fatally shot sometime after 1:10 a.m., based on surveillance video.

Harris was later arrested at Gabriel’s home in Avondale on Oct. 21. Gabriel was also charged with being an accessory after the fact to first-degree murder, NOLA.com reported.

An attorney for Harris argued that no direct evidence linked him to the slayings.

“This is a completely circumstantial case,” defense attorney Richard Bourke said. “All of it is based on GPS records … He could have left before the shooting. Someone else could have been the shooter. There’s a lot of things that can happen.”

A judge on Tuesday found probable cause to hold Harris, who was ordered back in custody without bail, NOLA.com reported.

News Orleans Prostitute Charged in Mardi Gras Slaying of Businessman

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Mardi Gras slay suspect Megan Hall has a history of prostitution busts

NEW ORLEANS — A woman with a history of prostitution arrests has been charged in the hotel stabbing death of a Pennsylvania businessman who was in News Orleans for Mardi Gras, police said.

Megan Hall, 25, turned herself in to New Orleans cops  Sunday morning after being sought for questioning in the bloody slaying of Pennsylvania jewelry store chain owner, Patrick Murphy, on Thursday. She has been charged with second-degree murder.

Investigators have not yet said what they believe the motive was in Murphy’s slaying, but said Hall was seen on surveillance footage checking in with Murphy at the Empress Hotel early Thursday, and leaving alone two hours later.

Police were called around noon the next day after hotel staff found Murphy lying dead in bed in a pool of blood. An autopsy determined that Murphy had been stabbed to death.

Murphy, 62, had been in town with his wife for Mardi Gras. He owns Murphy Jewelers with stores in Pottsville, Tilden Township and Center Valley in Pennsylvania.

Patrick Murphy

Hall, of Munford, Tennessee, had several prior prostitution busts in Nashville, Tennessee; New Orleans; and Houston. If convicted, she faces life imprisonment.

Soldier, Girlfriend Busted After Dead Wife’s Body Found in Trunk of Car

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Logan Kyle (r) is accused of killing his wife, Shelena (l) in a bid to run off with another woman

LAKE CHARLES, Louisiana — A U.S. Army soldier was arrested after cops found his dead wife’s body in the trunk of a car he was driving in with his girlfriend and her kids.

Officers with the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s office in Louisiana said they pulled over 22-year-old Logan Kyle and his 24-year-old girlfriend, Sarah Parker, near Lake Charles late Monday after getting a call from another department saying they were wanted for suspected murder.

In the trunk, officers found the body of Kyle’s 22-year-old wife, Shelena Kyle. Police say that under questioning, Kyle admitted killing Shelena at Fort Polk, where he is stationed on active duty. Parker admitted that she knew Kyle had killed his wife and was willingly helping him get rid of the body, cops said.

Parker’s two kids, aged 1 and 2, were in the car at the time of the stop and were taken into custody by the state’s department of children and family services. She was charged with failing to report a homicide and obstruction of justice.

Sarah Parker

Kyle was handed over to military investigators. A corporal, he joined the Army four years ago, and was assigned to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division at Fort Polk in February, 2017, and served as an infantry fire team leader.

 

Man Busted for Child Porn When Worker Spots Sick Pics On Screensaver

By HardBoiledNews Staff

James Drew Taylor allegedly used child porn as a screensaver

WEST MONROE, Louisiana — A not-so-sharp sicko was busted for having child porn after building employees came into his apartment to inspect his fire extinguisher and spotted the twisted images he’d been using as a screensaver.

James Drew Taylor was hit with 10 counts of child pornography after a building worker came into his West Monroe, Louisiana apartment and called cops when he saw a child porn slideshow scrolling across the screen of a computer in the living room.

Cops came to check the pictures out and then tracked Taylor down at his job where he admitted the images were his, KNOE-TV reported. He said he had downloaded them from the Internet.

Tenants in Taylor’s building had been notified by email three days before the inspections that they should put their fire extinguishers outside for collection. They were told that if the fire extinguishers were not outside, employees would enter the apartments to get them.

 

 

Man Claims Axe-Wielding Ghost Planted Meth Cops Found In His House

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Michael Auttonberry turns ghostly when he smokes meth, apparently

WEST MONROE, Louisiana — Stay away from whatever this guy is smoking.

A Louisiana man was busted after claiming to cops that a ghost planted drugs on him after he was hit in the head with an axe.

Police say Michael Auttonberry, 59, had no visible wounds to his head when they responded to a report that he had been stabbed at his home in West Monroe, according to an arrest report from the Ouachita Parish Sheriff’s Office, the Smoking Gun reported.

When deputies arrived, Auttonberry not only shouted at them, but also at people “who were obviously not there,” the arrest record said. Officials noted in their report that Auttonberry had not been stabbed in the head with an axe as he’d claimed.

Deputies also were unable to locate the intruders Auttonberry said were in his home.

When officers discovered a pile of crystal meth on his nightstand, Auttonberry allegedly told them that it had to have been planted by a “ghost or intruders” who happened to be climbing out a nearby window.

Auttonberry was charged with possession of a controlled dangerous substance and giving a false police report.

Mom Guns Down Estranged Hubby in Front of Their 3 Kids at Walmart

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Kayla Coutee shot her estranged husband when they met to exchange their kids

ALEXANDRIA, Louisiana — A mother of three gunned down her estranged husband in front of their kids at a Walmart parking lot, cops said.

Kayla Coutee, 31, had gone to meet her ex, Thomas Coutee, 30, to exchange the children on Saturday morning, when she shot him once in the chest, the Alexandria police department said.

She then remained at the scene with the three children, ages 7, 5 and 2, until police arrived to find Thomas laying on his back in a pool of blood at an outer area of the parking lot. Paramedics tried to save Thomas, but he was declared dead at the scene.

Kayla was taken into custody at the scene and later charged with second-degree murder. The children were not injured and were taken to police headquarters before being released to a relative.

Thomas Coutee had filed for divorce from Kayla earlier this year, court records show.

Jaguar Escapes at New Orleans Zoo, Kills Seven Other Animals

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Valerio the jaguar killed four alpaca, a fox and an emu before being tranquilized

NEW ORLEANS — Animal instinct can’t be caged.

A 3-year-old jaguar escaped its enclosure at a Louisiana Zoo and rampaged through the nearby habitats of several other animals, killing four alpaca, an emu and a fox, before being sedated with a tranquilizer dart.

The male jaguar, named Valerio, got out of its habitat at around 7:20 a.m. Saturday morning, officials at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans said, and was on the loose for about an hour before zookeepers were able to stop him.

“Our animals are our family. We are devastated by this loss,” the zoo said in a statement. The zoo was closed Saturday while officials conducted an investigation.

The zoo said they believe the wild cat got out of its habitat through a break in its roof. A second jaguar living in the enclosure — a female named  Ix Chel — remained in a separate indoor habitat during the incident.

After Valerio got out, he killed the alpaca named Noel, Micia, Alexandria and Lil Melody, as well as a fox named Maggie May and an emu named Elmo. Another alpaca named Daisy and two foxes named Copper and Rusty, were injured but survived.

The zoo said that veterinarians responded immediately after Valerio broke free, but it took some time to prepare the tranquilizers and to get a good line of sight to dart the cat. Once darted, Valerio was sedated within minutes. The cat was moved to a secure location at the zoo and was in good health.

“Nothing is going to happen to the jaguar itself. Unfortunately, it was doing what jaguars do and we are not going to euthanize the jaguar over this,” said Joel Hamilton, the zoo’s vice president.

Valerio was born in March 2015 at San Diego Zoo and moved to Audubon Zoo in New Orleans last October.

‘Nigerian Prince’ Scammer Caught in Louisiana and He Sure as Hell Ain’t Nigerian

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Michael Neu played a role in duping victims out of $250,000 in a ‘Nigerian Prince’ scam

SLIDELL, Louisiana — Ladies and gentlemen, here is your Nigerian prince.

Police in Louisiana have zeroed in on a 67-year-old local man who they say played a key middle-man role helping dupe hundreds of people out of $250,000 through the notorious Nigerian prince email scam.

Michael Neu, of Slidell, allegedly served as a go-between between the victims and the foreign-based hoaxters, receiving payments into his accounts and then wiring the money overseas and keeping a cut of the cash.

The scam consists of sending dubious emails from a “Nigerian Price” who claims you are the beneficiary of a will and stand to inherit a large sum of money. They ask their marks to send personal financial information and make a security deposit to “prove” they are the beneficiary. While most people delete such emails, police say enough people fall for it to make it lucrative.

Slidell Police say they caught wind of Neu in May 2016, when contacted by authorities in Dodge City, Kansas where one of the victims lived.

Following a long-running investigation, with the aid of the Secret Service, they determined Neu had gotten roped into the scam through a “romance scheme.” He met a woman on Facebook named Maria Mendez, who investigators believe likely doesn’t exist, and she convinced him to help process payments for a cut of the action.

Mendez would then send out would thousands of emails to unsuspecting recipients each day,  consisting of “Nigerian Prince” scams, fraudulent IRS scams, reshipping scams and advance pay scams. When someone would fall victim to one of the scam’s, Mendez would  direct them to wire or mail money to Neu.

He would then transfer the money to “Maria Mendez” in Nigeria via Western Union or MoneyGram. He said he was conducting around three to four such transactions each week.

 

Neu being arrested in November

Investigators say  scammers use people like Neu as a middle man in an attempt to conceal their true identities, and to launder money. At first they believed Neu was a dupe himself but under questioned they discovered he was a willing participant who said he “needed the money.”

They say Neu had over 10 bank accounts, most of which had been frozen or closed because bank officials suspected fraudulent transactions. Western Union also banned Neu from using their wire transfer services, forcing him to use other companies, cops said.

In all, detectives estimate Neu made over $250,000 worth of fraudulent transactions, but believe the figure could be substantially higher.

Man Seeking Voodoo Doctor Wrecks Car, Strips Off Clothes, Blames Snakes

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Kevin Bolton Crashed at the Slidell Airport after an imagined police chase

SLIDELL, Louisiana — It’s a pretty good bet drugs were involved.

A man on his way to find a “voodoo doctor,” crashed his car through a fence at a Louisiana airport and was later found stripped down to only his underwear because he claimed snakes had been crawling up his pants, police said.

Kevin Bolton, 43, of Hattiesburg, Mississippi said he had been running from police when he slammed his Chevy Tahoe through the fence of the Slidell Municipal Airport Monday morning and causing a telephone pole to fall on his car.

Police, however, say no law enforcement agency had been pursuing Bolton. Things got even weirder after the crash.

Bolton then fled into the woods near the airport, but turned up a couple of hours later in a nearby subdivision clad in only his underwear, cops said.

Bolton

“Bolton alleges that he had to strip off his clothes because snakes were crawling up his pants,” the Slidell police said in a statement.

Cops said they believed Bolton was under the influence of some type of narcotic. He was booked on charges of careless operation of a motor vehicle and hit and run.

Trial Starts in Horrific Drowning of Couple Tied to Weights and Thrown Off Bridge

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Prosecutors say Lakeitha and Kenneth Joseph were still alive when they hit the water

NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana jury heard the horrific details of a drowning of a couple who were tied to 30-pound kettle bells and thrown off  bridge to a nightmarish death.

Prosecutors in New Orleans laid out the terrifying final hours of Kenneth and Lakeitha Joseph’s lives in opening statements Tuesday in the murder trial of Horatio Johnson.

Authorities allege that Johnson, who is Kenneth Joseph’s cousin, put together the elaborate plot to kill the couple that began with them being beaten with chairs in a Metairie recording studio on the night of Feb, 18, 2014, and ended with them being thrown off a bridge into the murky waters of the Intercoastal Waterway.

“They were helpless, unable to help each other, only able to watch each other drown,” Orleans Parish prosecutor Kevin Guillory told jurors, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

The couple were reported missing the next day after failing to return a van to a relative. The van was later found near Atlanta with blood splattered all over its interior.

Lekeitha Joseph’s body surfaced on March 10, 2014, and her husband’s body was found 12 days later. Their bodies were still bound by the blue nylon rope that allegedly been used to tie them to the heavy weightlifting bells.

While prosecutors laid out in fine detail how the killings happened, they didn’t discuss motive. Johnson faces life in prison if convicted.

Horatio Johson faces life in prison for the murder of his cousin and his cousin’s wife

Two others face charges in the case. Amir “Blue” Ybarra, who operated the recording studio, has been a fugitive wanted on obstruction charges since May 2014. Steven Bradley, 31, is awaiting a separate trial on murder charges.

Two others have already pleaded guilty to charges in the case. Prison guard Brittany Martin has admitted to his role in the killing and faces up to 40 years when he is sentenced. Frank Mike Jr., admitted dumping the blood-stained van after being told by Bradley that  they “had to pull off a little move” using the vehicle.

Guillory told the jury that when the Josephs went to meet Johnson at Ybarra’s recording studio, they were lured inside one by one, where they were beaten with chairs.

Prosecutors said they would present video surveillance footage from a Walmart showing  Johnson and Martin purchasing a “murder kit,” of gloves, shoes, hoodies, degreaser, the nylon rope and kettlebells, using Lakeitha Joseph’s credit card.

They then drove the couple to Paris Road Bridge in Chalmette, and threw them in the water to die.

Johnson’s attorney, Bradley Phillips, argued that prosecutors had ignored piles of other evidence in pointing the finger at his client, and had largely built their case around the testimony of Martin and Mike, who he said had changed their stories several times and should be considered unreliable witnesses.

“They are people with literally everything to lose — their life,” he said. “They ignored mountains of other things, and they created a narrative, and that’s exactly what the evidence is going to show.”

Fugitive Accidentally Turns Himself in By Flagging Down Cop for a Ride

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Jansen Simon should be charged with being criminally stupid

RACELAND, Louisiana — Criminal mastermind, he wasn’t.

Police caught up to a wanted fugitive in Louisiana when he flagged down a passing patrol car after his friends dumped him out on the side of the road.

The Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s office says Jansen Simon made their jobs easy early Sunday morning, when he signaled a passing deputy to stop.

Simon, 30, had been wanted since 2013 on charges that he hit a man on the head with a hammer during a bar fight, fracturing his skull. He fled the scene and had been on the lam ever since. He also had been wanted on two contempt of court warrants as well.

When Simon stopped the deputy along the road in Raceland, he explained that his friend shad abandoned him and he needed a lift. But when the deputy checked Simon’s ID and ran it through the system, he ended up in cuffs instead.

Simon was charged with second-degree battery and two counts contempt of court and is being held without bail.

 

 

‘Sons of Guns’ Reality Star Sentenced to Life in Prison for Child Rapes

By HardBoiledNews Staff

‘Sons of Guns’ ran from 2011 until 2014 on the Discovery Channel

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana — A former star of the reality show “Sons of Guns” will spend the rest of his life behind bars after being found guilty of repeatedly raping two young girls.

Will Hayden, 51, was convicted in April of raping the two girls — one in the early 1990s and the other in 2013 and 2014 — when they were just 11- and 12-years-old. The younger woman, who is now 15, testified that Hayden raped her repeatedly over the course of two years.

“One test of society is how it treats those who are at the dawn of life, the children,” East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore said.

Hayden and his family were stars of the show “Sons of Guns” which featured their Louisiana custom gun business, Red Jacket Firearms. The show ran from 2011 until 2014 on the Discovery Channel and was cancelled after Hayden was arrested on the rape charges.

The judge sentenced Hayden to concurrent life terms on the aggravated rape convictions, as well as 40-years for forcible rape. Hayden will not be eligible for probation, parole or a suspended sentence, the judge ruled, meaning he will spend the rest of his days behind bars, the Baton Rouge Advocate reported.

The reality show star testified in his own defense in the case to deny that he had raped the girls. His attorney says he is planning to appeal the verdict.

He also faces charges of aggravated incest involving his oldest daughter, Stephanie Hayden, who co-starred on the show. In 2014, she told Dr. Phil that her father once came into her bedroom one night when she was child, stinking drunk and pinched and kissed her while trying to take her clothes off. She told the talk show host she managed to escape and that he never did it again.

‘Swamp People’ Star Busted for Illegally Hunting Gators

By HardBoiledNews Staff

NOBLE, Louisiana — A former star of the reality show “Swamp People” has been arrested on charges of illegally catching and selling alligators and other animals.

The Sabine Parish Sheriff’s office said Roger Rivers, Jr., 42, and four others who worked for him, were busted after a year-long investigation by wildlife officials into allegations that they were illegally hunting gators, according to KTBS-TV.

Rivers, who appeared in the fifth season of the History Channel show which follows a group of gator hunters around Louisiana, is well known locally for living off the land.

According to his bio for the show:

“Roger Rivers spends every day on the hunt for food for his family of five. Whether it’s hogs, turtles or gators, Roger hunts them and never comes home empty-handed.

“However, Roger has one problem: an addiction to hunting big gators. Every year is a quest for him to capture the biggest gators in the swamp. Last year, he was able to come home with a 14-foot monster that nearly took his life when it pulled him overboard.”

Police say Rivers was booked into the Sabine Parish Detention Center on eight charges, including selling alligator snapping turtles, taking alligators and selling them without a license, selling alligator meat illegally and marijuana possession.

He was released on $10,000 bond.

Also arrested were Joseph Wilson Meshell, 66, and his three sons, Joseph Wilson Meshell Jr., Jessie Lee Meshell, and Michael Meshell, who all allegedly worked for Rivers.

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries agents launched the investigation after receiving a tip about out-of-season hunting and the sale of animals harvested from those hunts.

 

Dead Giveaway: LSU Lineman Busted Wearing His Number During Burglary

By HardBoiledNews Staff

 

Adrian Magee played three games as a freshman

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana  — He’ll be swapping his playbook for a copy of the penal code.

An offensive lineman for LSU got busted burglarizing an apartment while wearing clothes bearing his own uniform number, cops said.

Adrian Magee, 20, is accused of making off with an Xbox gaming console, six Xbox games, Gucci flip flops, an Onyx bluetooth speaker, and $1,200 cash from the apartment.

He might have gotten away with it, had the 6-foot-5, 309-pound lineman not stuck his head in through the apartment doorway to ask the victim after he returned if he had been robbed, cops said.

The man whose apartment it was, being a huge LSU fan, immediately recognized Magee mainly because he had on a pair of shorts emblazoned with his uniform number, No. 73.

When the victim said he planned to review surveillance tape to see if he could identify who the culprit was, Magee left and soon returned with the stolen items and admitted he was responsible.

Magee, who played three games as a freshman last season, has been suspended indefinitely by the tea,.

 

Couple Busted in Old School ‘Pigeon Drop’ Con Targeting Elderly Women

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Vanessa Favors and Milous Brown keep their scams old school

KENNER, Louisiana — A con artist posing as a devoutly religious woman and her boyfriend have been charged with running an old-fashioned “pigeon drop” scam to bilk an elderly woman out of her cash.

Police say Vanessa Favors, 61, of Atlanta, Georgia., and Milous Brown, 74, of Birmingham, Alabama, were busted after targeting a 65-year-old woman at a store in Kenner, Louisiana, but say they have been arrested for running similar scams in the past.

“We certainly believe they are traveling and preying on the elderly to scam them,” Kenner Police Lt. Brian McGregor told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “We’ve also been in contact with other police jurisdictions who are reviewing similar cases.”

In a “pigeon drop”con, scamsters typically pretend to find a bag, wallet containing a large sum of cash, and approach their mark asking if the bag belongs to them. The fraudsters then propose splitting the money, but only after agreeing to a complicated arrangement in which the victim hands over cash as security while a lawyer ensures their keeping the money is legal.

In this case, Favors is charged with approaching the woman outside a Kenner grocery store. Favors, who was carrying a bible, asked the woman if she dropped her bag and then opened a purse holding a large wad of cash.

Favors offered to share the money for a fee and got the woman to agree to drive to a nearby where Favors said she planned to contact an attorney, cops said. On the drive over, cops say Favors began reciting biblical verse loudly, distracting the victim while she stole her wallet.

When they arrived at Wal-Mart, Favors took the handbag and the victim’s wallet inside where she met with Brown and quickly ran up several hundred dollars worth of items on the woman’s credit cards.

It was only after Favors did not return that the woman became suspicious and realized her wallet was gone.

Police believe the couple pulled off a similar scam on a 69-year-old woman outside a Winn Dixie in Kenner in 2013. Investigators believe other victims may have been targeted in and around New Orleans but may not have come forward because they were embarrassed.

A Whole Life of Crime: Man Arrested for 60th Time in Louisiana

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Ellis Ray Kitchen has made a whole life out of crime

ALEXANDRIA, Louisiana — Old habits die hard.

A career criminal in Louisiana has been busted for the 60th time — and the third time in month — for shoplifting, police said.

Ellis Ray Kitchen, 68, was arrested on Wednesday after he bolted from a shopping mall with property he had stolen from one of the shops there, the Alexandria Police department said.

When officers arrived, Kitchen allegedly dropped what he had stolen and ran, but when they caught up with in the mall parking lot, they found other property he had taken from another business.

Four days earlier, Alexandria cops busted him at the same shopping mall for trying to walk off with a tool set without paying.

Following the second arrest, Kitchen, who police say appears to be homeless, was booked for the 60th time into the Rapides Parish Detention Center.

Kitchen had previously been busted on Christmas Eve for trying to walk out of a local shop in Alexandria with items he hadn’t paid for.

Kitchen’s rap sheet in the area dates back to at least 1991, parish records show. Many of the arrests have been for theft and Kitchen has been listed as a habitual offender since 2012.

He is also a level three registered sex offender. In 1981, he was convicted of raping a woman and in 1986 he sentenced to five years for attempting to rape a woman.

 

Drunk Driver Who Sped Off With Dead Pedestrian on Roof Sentenced to 15 Years

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Quintella Williams had to be forced to stop after driving off with Sakanah Franklin on the roof of her car

NEW ORLEANS — A drunk driver who hit and killed a pedestrian and then callously sped off with the victim’s body on the roof of her car, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to vehicular homicide.

New Orleans police said Quintella Williams, 30, was intoxicated when she struck 37-year-old Sakanah Franklin in the early morning hours on Oct. 24, 2015.

Police said Williams then continued driving six blocks with Franklin’s body on top of her Jeep Compass. Witnesses gave chase and forced Williams to pull over as she was about to get on an interstate. Franklin was pronounced dead at the scene.

Court records showed that Williams’ blood alcohol level registered between 0.15 and 0.20, well above the legal limit, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported.

Williams had faced up to 30 years in prison. A mother of three children, Williams will be credited with time served since her arrest.

Williams did not comment in court during the sentencing hearing but her mother, Bridgette Perry, told the newspaper that the situation was a tragedy that has torn two families apart.

“We are deeply sorry, and so sad about the whole situation,” she said. “They lost a little one, and we did, too, in that she won’t see anybody for a while.”

Woman Busted for Zapping Man on Genitals with Stun Gun

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Nadira Tardieff is charged with taking her anger out on a man’s jewels

THIBODAUX, Louisiana — She took ball-busting to a new extreme.

Police in Louisiana say Nadira Tardieff tried to settle a fight with a man by zapping him repeatedly with her pink stun gun, including at least one shock to the man’s genitalia.

Thibodaux police say they were called to a Quality Inn in the early hours of Saturday morning, where they found the 37-year-old Tardieff arguing loudly with a man in the parking lot, drawing the attention of a crowd of people at a fast food restaurant across the road.

When cops were unable to calm Tardieff down, they placed her under arrest and as they tried to bring her a police cruiser, they say she sunk her fingernails deep into the arm of one of the officers, “ripping flesh from his arm.”

Once they managed to get her inside the car, cops say she yelled that she scratched the officer on purpose and “they were lucky that is all she did.”

Police say they then spoke to the man she had been arguing with and he told them that she had attacked him inside her hotel room with a pink stun gun, zapping him several times, including on his genitals.

Tardieff was charged with aggravated battery with a dangerous weapon, disturbing the peace, resisting arrest and battery of a police officer. She was held in the Lafourche Parish Detention Center on $21,000 bond.

 

 

Louisiana Man Makes Cops’ Job Easy With Misfired Text About Drug Deal

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Dwayne Hebert

PIERRE PART, Louisiana — It’s a misdial for the ages.

A Louisiana drug dealer was busted after he accidentally sent a text messages to a sheriff’s deputy while trying to set up a drug buy, police said.

Dwayne Paul Hebert, 39, of Pierre Part, whipped off the misdirected message to an Assumption Parish Sheriff’s deputy on Friday evening in an effort to arrange the delivery of methamphetamine, police said.

The cop played along and set the meeting up, but arranged to have the narcotics squad waiting on standby to swoop in when Hebert showed up.

When he arrived, Hebert was arrested, and deputies found two guns and a stash of meth on him.

He was booked on charges of weapons possession, possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute and resisting an officer. He was held on $25,000 bond on the drug charges.

Police say they had busted Hebert with two others in November for operating a meth lab out of a boat and that he was free on $90,000 bond in that case.

 

 

Ex-NFL Back Joe McKnight’s Killer Charged with Manslaughter

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Ronald Gasser was charged with manslaughter in McKnight's killing

Ronald Gasser was charged with manslaughter in McKnight’s killing

HARVEY, Louisiana — The man who gunned down former NFL running back Joe McKnight in a road rage incident last week has been charged with manslaughter.

The arrest late Monday of Ronald Gasser came four days after the shooting, and after he had initially been released. The delay had touched off allegations online of racial bias and that the Jefferson Parish Sheriff was dragging his feet. Gasser is white and McKnight is black.

But Sheriff Newell Normand insisted the delay was driven by the need to allow investigators to speak to as many witnesses as possible and gather enough evidence to deliver the strongest case to prosecutors.

“This isn’t about race,” he said. “Not a single witness to this day said there was one racial slur uttered during the course of these events. Unfortunately, a life was lost. But you want you know something, folks? Two people engaged in bad behavior that day. Why? I don’t know.”

Gasser, 54, was held on $500,000 bond.

Normand said the deadly encounter began when McKnight — who appeared to have been driving erratically — cut Gasser off as they drove over a bridge. That enraged Gasser who told police he “set out after Mr. McKnight,” with the two engaging in a running game of cat and mouse over several blocks, weaving around cars and screaming at each other from their cars.

When the two stopped at a red light, McKnight got out of his Audi Q7 SUV and approached Gasser’s Infiniti G37 from the passenger side.The two exchanged more words, and Gasser pulled out a gun and shot McKnight three times, killing him, Normand said.

He said Gasser’ told police he acted out of fear of McKnight’s “threatening statements.”

“That’s why on Thursday evening, only faced with, and only having Mr. Gasser’s statement, that we thought it best that an arrest not be made for strategic reasons, until we could get other witnesses,” Normand said.

McKnight played 4 seasons in the NFL

McKnight played 4 seasons in the NFL

He said the delay in making the arrest was part of an effort to make sure that investigators could interviews witnesses who hadn’t been tainted.

“The Stand Your Ground law gives us an obligation to get it right,” Normand said. “For those who have criticized us – tough, I don’t care. I can put my head on my pillow at night knowing I did the right thing.”

He leveled particular criticism at a witness who falsely told a local newspaper that Gasser had gotten out of his car and opened fire at McKnight as he tried to apologize and then stood over his body and screamed,“I told you don’t you f— with me,” and then fired again.

“Shame on that individual,” he said.

Normand revealed for the first time that McKnight had a gun in the car he was driving, but that it belonged to his stepfather and he never displayed and that Gasser was not aware it was there.

In 2006, Gasser was involved in a road rage incident at the same intersection in which he struck another motorist several times. He was charged with battery but the charges were later dropped.

McKnight was selected in the fourth round of the 2010 NFL draft by the New York Jets. He played for the Jets and Kansas City Chiefs, both as a running back and kick returner. McKnight, 28, most recently played for the Edmonton Eskimos and Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2016/12/06/joe-mcknight-manslaughter-arrest-ronald-gasser/95033986/

Joe McKnight’s Killer Released, But Not Cleared as Investigation Continues

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Ronald Gasser admits shooting McKnight but was initially released after questioning

Ronald Gasser admits shooting McKnight but was initially released after questioning

HARVEY, Louisiana — The gunman who admitted shooting ex-NFL player Joe McKnight in a road rage incident was released after questioning pending further investigation, police said.

Ronald Gasser, 54, was allowed to go free hours after shooting McKnight three times during an altercation on a road just outside of New Orleans. But he has not been cleared, police said.

Police say the two men got into “a heated verbal exchange” at the intersection which led Gasser to pull a gun and shoot three times through the passenger window of his Infinity G37, striking McKnight in the hand, shoulder and chest as he stood in the street outside the car.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand said the fight began when someone “recklessly” cut off the other while driving on a bridge nearby which was followed by a chase through the streets, ending in the shooting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcdInUu2aFs&feature=youtu.be

Normand said initial accounts in local media that cited an unnamed witness describing McKnight trying to apologize to Gasser who opening fire and then stood over McKnight and said “I told you don’t you f— with me,” before firing again were untrue.

“None of that is true,” Normand said. “We have no witness account of an apology being made by Mr. McKnight to Mr. Gasser.”

Normand said three shell casings were recovered inside Gasser’s car, suggesting he was inside the vehicle when he fired. And Coroner Gerry Cvitanovich said McKnight’s wounds were not consistent with someone being hit by shots fired from above.

Still, the decision to release Gasser, who is white, as the investigation into the shooting of McKnight, who is black, sparked outrage from the former NFL running back’s teammates and family members.

McKnight played four seasons in the NFL

McKnight played four seasons in the NFL

“We think a black man was lynched yesterday,” said Morris Reed, the president of the New Orleans branch of the N.A.A.C.P. “We are demanding some answers.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” former teammate Damon Harrison, wrote on Twitter. “Shoot in the air and you’re in jail for at least a week. Lord help us all.”

Normand said investigators simply hadn’t gathered enough evidence yet to make a decision on whether to charge Gasser.

“The easiest thing for me would have been to say, ‘Book him Dano,’ but the fact of the matter in trying to flush out all these details and not have rush to judgement, we chose not to do that,” he said. “Everybody wants to make this about race. This isn’t about race.”

He noted that the man that raised McKnight, who was a local high school football star, had once worked as a deputy in the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s office. McKnight played as a running back and return specialist in the NFL for four seasons — three with the New York Jets and one with the Kansas City Chiefs. He then played in the Canadian Football League.

Normand warned that any protesters who strayed outside a designated area outside the sheriff’s office would be arrested.

Gasser, who owns a telecommunications and real estate business, had remained at the scene after the shooting and had handed his .40 caliber handgun over to police when they arrived. Normand said he had cooperated with investigators.

Later in the day, police released details of an earlier road rage incident involving Gasser dating back to 2006, where he was charged with punching another motorist several times after an argument about Gasser driving recklessly.  A charge of simple battery was later dismissed and police said they are investigating why that happened.

Ex-NFL Back Joe McKnight Killed in Road Rage Shooting

By HardBoiledNews Staff

 

Former NY Jet Joe McKnight was shot three times in a road rage incident

Former NY Jet Joe McKnight was shot three times in a road rage incident

TERRYTOWN, Louisiana — Joe McKnight, a former New York Jets football player and a USC standout was shot and killed in a road rage incident near New Orleans, police said.

McKnight, 28, was shot multiple times after getting into an argument with another motorist and was declared dead at the scene.

McKnight played four seasons in the NFL

McKnight played four seasons in the NFL

The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s office said it had taken 54-year-old suspect Ronald Gasser into custody for questioning.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune quoted an unnamed witness saying she saw McKnight apologizing to a man who was yelling back at him. The man then pulled out a gun and fired multiple times.

She said the shooter then stood over McKnight and said “I told you don’t you f— with me,” and then fired again.

Police say McKnight was unarmed and that Gasser remained on the scene until officers arrived and handed over his weapon to them.

McKnight played as a running back and return specialist in the NFL for four seasons — three with the Jets and one with the Kansas City Chiefs. He then played in the Canadian Football League.

A native of Louisiana, McKnight played at John Curtis Christian High School in suburban New Orleans. His family lost their home in Hurricane Katrina. He then attended the University of Southern California where he was sometimes referred to as the “next Reggie Bush.”

In 2010, he was drafted in the fourth round by the New York Jets. He played in a limited capacity as a backup running back, kick returner and cornerback before leaving the team in 2013.