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D.A. declines to prosecute two in homicide case

The 16th Judicial District Attorney has declined to prosecute the mother of a man convicted of manslaughter and her boyfriend in connection with a May 2013 fatal shooting in Morgan City.

On March 6, the district attorney decided against prosecuting Cassandra Garrett, 53, of Morgan City, and Ashley Joseph Thomas, 48, of St. Martinville, in connection with the May 2013 shooting death of Mikki Jay Dauntain.

Garrett, whose son Justin Edward Patterson was convicted of manslaughter in March 2017 in the case, had faced charges of obstruction of justice by tampering with evidence and conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice by tampering with evidence. Thomas, Garrett’s boyfriend, was facing the same two charges as Garrett. Patterson’s first trial in December 2016 ended in a mistrial due to a hung jury.

Patterson was on trial on a second-degree murder charge, but a second jury found him guilty of manslaughter.

Assistant District Attorney Anthony Saleme reviewed both Garrett’s and Thomas’ cases, the results of both of Patterson’s trials and interviewed some of the jurors from those trials, he said.

“Based on that, it was our assessment that we could not in good conscience continue with the prosecution in those cases,” Saleme said.

At Patterson’s second trial, two witnesses identified Patterson as the person who shot Dauntain on May 20, 2013, in the 2100 block of Federal Avenue in Morgan City. Several witnesses testified that Patterson’s intended target may have been Dauntain’s friend, Brandon Scott, whom Patterson believed had robbed him and his girlfriend at the time, Ashley Nicole Rudolph, about six weeks before the shooting in the city of Patterson. Scott was never charged in the alleged robbery.

Judge Lori Landry had sentenced Patterson in June 2017 to 25 years in prison hard labor, but then changed that sentence in December 2017 to 20 years hard labor, court records stated. The district attorney is appealing that amended sentence, Saleme said.

Also in December 2017, Judge Paul deMahy sentenced Rudolph to serve two years of supervised probation. Rudolph had pleaded guilty in November 2014 to a charge of obstruction of justice involving a felon in possession of a firearm.

Patterson’s sister, Jessicah Charisse Johnson, has yet to go to trial in the case on charges of second-degree murder and aggravated criminal damage to property.

During Patterson’s trials, Dauntain’s girlfriend, Natasha Garner, said, on May 20, 2013, she was driving on Federal Avenue on her way to work with Dauntain in the front passenger seat and Scott in the back passenger seat when several women, including Johnson, flagged down her car. Johnson allegedly busted the back passenger side window trying to get to Scott.

Three other defendants still face charges in connection with the case including Rudolph’s mother, Linda Sue Madise; Rudolph’s father, Joseph Patrick Madise; and her friend, Lyndsey Denise Guidry.

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