Our staff and residents of Caddo Parish took part in several events in October that raised awareness of community safety and, in a late-month activity, also raised money for a worthy cause.
I thank all on our staff who took part in the scores of National Night Out activities that occurred throughout the city and the parish October 4. Across the city, thousands of people celebrated and demonstrated our desire that Shreveport and Caddo Parish can buck the nationwide crime uptick trend and be a safer place.
Our office co-sponsored the National Night Out event at Winnfield Funeral Home on Hollywood Avenue. Hundreds of people turned out to hear music, and share food and fellowship. This was the largest group we have ever had to participate and everyone had a great time.
Closer to the month’s end, our office and other Caddo Parish law enforcement agencies closed out Domestic Violence Awareness Month with the October 22 “Kick Against Domestic Violence” kickball fundraiser at Bill Cockrell Park on Pines Road. The event had been planned for some time, but sadly the site was also the scene this month of a tragic murder-suicide in which two children were senselessly slain by a deranged man who took his own life. That tragedy underscored the threat, unpredictability and pervasiveness of domestic violence.
There were six teams and each had at least seven team members. So along with team members and spectators there were more than 100 people in attendance.
Team names incorporated the word “Purple,” for the color associated with domestic violence.
Our office fielded two teams: The Special Victims Unit, “Purple Reign,” and the Child Support Section, “Purple Mambas.”
Other agencies participating were the Shreveport Police Department, Purple Protectors”; the Shreveport City Marshal’s office, “Purple Panthers”; the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s office, “Purple Peacemakers”; and Project Celebration, “Purple Warriors.” All funds raised benefited Project Celebration.
The Child Support team gave $70 over the $50 registration fee, while our SVU paid $30 over the registration fee and the Northwest Louisiana Family Justice Center also donated $50. The fees totalled $400. And there was a later donation of $1,500 that boosted the total to $1,900!
The Championship Game was between Child Support’s Purple Mambas and SPD’s Purple Protectors. It was a close game but the SPD Purple Protectors won and took home the trophy. Congratulations to SPD!
However, that wasn’t the close of October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The closer was a Guilty-as-Charged conclusion to a double murder trial — delayed by the Louisiana Supreme Court’s Covid jury trial court shutdown, pre-trial attorney issues that went the Court of Appeal for decisions that resulted in the assigned judge’s self-recusal, and a defense attorney change late in proceedings — tied to domestic violence. On October 31, a jury in District Judge John D. Mosely Jr.’s court returned its verdicts against Arthur Deandre Anderson, 31, for the November 19, 2016 slayings of his former girlfriend Ashley Williams and her male companion, Huey Leonard. Williams and Leonard were found shot after Williams’ Nissan Versa was rear-ended and knocked into a ditch in the 4000 block of Crosby Street in Shreveport. Leonard died at the scene from his injuries. Williams, who later died at the hospital, gave a dying declaration while on scene and was able to describe the vehicle that the defendant was driving.
Anderson will return to face Judge Mosely November 29, for sentencing. He faces mandatory terms of life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence on each count.
Anderson was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Mekisha Smith Creal and Kodie K. Smith. Anderson was defended by attorney Joel Pearce.
All month long, our assistant district attorneys won cases, and in others defendants pleaded guilty before their trials even began. Here are the highlights:
A Shreveport woman who caused a three-vehicle accident while intoxicated, killing a driver from south Louisiana, was convicted in Caddo District Court October 25.
The three-woman, three-man jury in District Judge Chris Victory’s courtroom unanimously found Angella Marshall, 43, guilty as charged of vehicular homicide. That was in connection with the October 10, 2020 three-vehicle collision at West College Street and Jewella Avenue Marshall caused. Tested for intoxication, she posted .184 blood-alcohol after the wreck.
The decedent in the wreck was 64-year-old Gretna poet and youth counselor Lenard Pierce. He was pinned in his vehicle and died at the scene.
Marshall returns to Judge Victory’s court November 28, and faces a prison term of five to 30 years.
She was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Sam Crichton and Victoria Washington.
On October 24, Trina Chu, a Shreveport attorney arrested in 2020 as she ran for a judicial position, pleaded no contest to one count of Offenses Against Intellectual Property. Chu, 48, had been set for a bench trial but ultimately resolved the matter with a plea.
Jefferson Parish District Judge Lee Faulkner Jr. sentenced Chu to serve six months in the parish jail, suspended, with six months of unsupervised probation, with $45 to be paid to the Indigent Defender fund and $2,000 court costs.
Chu was arrested after being terminated by the Second Circuit Court of Appeal. While working for then-Second Circuit Court of Appeal Judge Henry Brown, she took confidential court documents and placed them onto a USB device in an effort to help a friend overturn a million-dollar judgment.
Chu was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Treneisha J. Hill and Tommy Johnson.
On October 19, A man who pleaded guilty this summer to abusing his 5-month-old daughter was sentenced to serve a decade in prison at hard labor.
Tyshun Washington, 34, was sentenced to the prison term for second-degree cruelty to a juvenile by Caddo District Judge Donald Hathaway Jr. On August 18, 2022, just four days before his trial was to begin, Washington pleaded guilty with sentencing to be up to the court following a pre-sentence investigation.
Washington was the sole caregiver for the victim in December 2020 when the juvenile received life threatening injuries that included a skull fracture, multiple brain bleeds, brain swelling, severe dehydration and fractured ribs. Washington did not seek medical care for the child, who was taken to a hospital only when other family members came to check on the child. The girl was not expected to survive her injuries, but has been taken off life support and has improved while not reaching age-appropriate life milestones.
Washington was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Courtney N. Ray.
On October 19, a Shreveport man convicted in September of kidnapping and murdering local couple Heather and Kelly Jose four years ago was sentenced to two back-to-back life terms in prison.
Dewayne Willie Watkins, 38, received the mandatory life terms from Caddo District Judge John D. Mosely Jr. It was in Judge Mosely’s court that a 12-person Caddo Parish jury on September 14 found Watkins guilty of kidnapping and first-degree murder.
Watkins kidnapped, robbed and then killed Heather Angela King Jose, 32, and her husband, Kelly Dean Jose, 43, on November 8, 2018. The two were found burned beyond recognition in a vehicle in the carport of a vacant home in the 3400 block of Penick Street in the Queensborough neighborhood. Watkins was arrested several days after the slayings following a six-hour standoff with police.
Assistant District Attorneys Bill Edwards and Mekisha Creal prosecuted the case.
Also sentenced to successive life terms October 19 was Quinton Carmack Jones, 53, convicted earlier in the month of raping two children. Jones was convicted October 14 on two counts of aggravated rape in District Judge Ramona Emanuel’s court.
In 2008, a 13-year-old victim disclosed to a family member that Jones had sexually assaulted her from the time she was 7 until she was 13. Jones was living in the home with the victim and abused her multiple times. Police investigated in 2008, but suspended the case while awaiting further contact with possible witnesses.
In 2017, another victim came forward and reported to police that Jones had raped her from the time she was 3 until she entered elementary school. Again, Jones gained access to the child because he lived in the home.
In both cases Jones threatened the victims, even placing a gun to one victim’s head. He told the victims that he would kill their family members if they told of the abuse.
Jones was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Britney A. Green, Ron Christopher Stamps and Christopher Bowman of the Caddo Parish District Attorney’s Special Victims Unit.
On October 12, a local man accused of a kidnapping and attempted armed robbery just over a year ago pleaded guilty in Caddo District Court, even as the jury for his trial was being selected.
Shreveporter Kdeaydrain D. Ardis, 23, charged with kidnapping and attempting to rob an acquaintance September 1, 2021, pleaded guilty in District Judge Donald Hathaway’s court. He will return November 29 for sentencing. He faces a prison term of up to 5 years with or without hard labor for the simple kidnapping and up to 49-1/2 years at hard labor for the attempted armed robbery.
On that September day, Ardis encountered his 61-year-old victim, who he knew through a previous family business deal. Ardis demanded money from his victim, who refused on the ground he did not have the money on him at the time to give. Ardis then forced the victim into his own vehicle to go to bank to make the withdrawal, holding a gun on the victim the entire drive. During the drive, the victim realized Ardis did not know where he banked, so he headed for Shreveport Police headquarters in the hope of encountering an officer.
Spotting a Shreveport City Marshal deputy driving a marked unit, the victim cut off the marshal’s car and jumped out of his vehicle, alerting the marshal. The marshal confronted Ardis, who was in the passenger’s seat of the victim’s car. The handgun used in the crime and a magazine of ammunition were taken into evidence and Ardis was arrested.
Ardis was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Courtney N. Ray and Bryce Kinley.
On October 13, another Shreveport man pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in connection with a February 2020 shooting death, just as his jury was being selected.
Traveon Rushaun Cannon, 22, will return to District Judge Donald Hathaway Jr.’s court December 28, when he will be sentenced to a statutory mandatory life term in prison.
On February 25, 2020, Cannon and an accomplice shot and killed Jaderiss Montreal Taylor, 18, in the 9000 block of South Shrevepark Drive in Shreveport. Cannon, who had been a friend of the victim’s, invited Mr. Taylor to go shoot a gun and then meet some women. Surveillance video showed Cannon and his accomplice picking Mr. Taylor up in a car. The two men then drove Taylor to a remote location where Cannon and his accomplice shot Taylor six times, killing him.
Cannon’s phone was found near Taylor’s body, and was found to contain numerous text messages with Cannon and his accomplice planning Taylor’s abduction and slaying. The phone also held photos of Cannon holding a weapon matching that used in the slaying, based on shell-casings found at the scene. Cannon, when interviewed, also confessed to the crimes.
Cannon was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Jason Waltman and Courtney N. Ray.
A Shreveport woman who illegally borrowed an acquaintance’s car two years ago and wrecked it also pleaded guilty just before her trial was to begin. She pleaded October 11.
Shadeciyon Milton, 25, pleaded guilty to the single charge of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, for which she could receive a prison term of up to two years at hard labor and a fine of up to $5,000 when she returns to District Judge Donald Hathaway Jr.’s court November 29.
Milton’s victim allowed her to reside temporarily in her home on Bolch Street in late August 2020, until Milton could find an apartment. While the victim was at an out-of-town funeral, Milton used her victim’s car without permission, wrecked it and then refused to repair the vehicle. She subsequently was arrested for unauthorized use.
Milton was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Bryce Kinley.
And as always, the Grand Jury did its work as well, returning murder and sex-crime indictments in its session that ended October 19.
Ronnie Lee Boyd III, 27, was charged with second-degree murder in connection with the January 1, 2022 slaying of Christopher Sha’Neil Lee. Lee, 43, was shot several times in the 300 block of East 72nd Street, in the first reported homicide in Shreveport in 2022.
Lloyd Cooks, 19, of Shreveport, was charged with second-degree murder in connection with the June 25, 2022 slaying of Jeremy Glenn Wyatt. Wyatt, 31, was shot multiple times late that night at the Shell station in the 5400 block of West 70th Street.
Nicholas Paul Bovay, 41, of Shreveport, was charged with two counts of first-degree rape, molestation of a juvenile, sexual battery and pornography involving juveniles.
Jimmie Lee Foster Jr., 39, of Shreveport, was charged with first-degree rape.
The Bovay and Foster indictments were issued under seal due to the nature of the alleged crimes.
Also, a secret indictment was issued under seal.
At juvenile court, amongst their myriad of cases, Assistant District Attorney Janet Silvie prosecuted the August 20, 2022 armed robbery at the Swoop Gas Station located across from Home Depot on Bert Kouns. The 16-year-old juvenile pleaded guilty as charged to armed robbery. In this case a group of juveniles stole a Yukon Denali in Bossier City and then drove to Shreveport and robbed a patron of the gas station by pointing handguns at the driver of the car, who ran into the woods to escape. One 16-year-old juvenile remains at large. The juvenile who was apprehended and convicted will be sentenced on November 16 by Juvenile Judge Natalie Howell.
At your service, as always, and wishing all of you a happy and safe November.
James E. Stewart, Sr.
Caddo Parish District Attorney
Caddo Parish District Attorney’s Office | October 2022