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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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The University of Alabama women’s basketball team used a strong second half to beat Southern, 69-56, in Women’s National Invitation Tournament first-round action Wednesday night in Coleman Coliseum.
“I thought we did a good job in the second half of defending the three better,” Alabama head coach Kristy Curry said in a news release. “We only gave up two in the second half and then out-rebounded them by 26. I thought our shot selection was better in the second half. We played inside-out off the dribble and in our posts.
“We had some open looks from playing inside-out, and Hannah (Cook) had a big second half with 15 points,” Curry added. “Ashley (Williams) was doing what a senior does this time of year with a double-double, and I thought it was a good team effort.”
Leading by three points at halftime, the Crimson Tide came out of the gate hot in the second half and led by as many as 15 in the third quarter before closing out with a 13-point win.
Williams led the way for Alabama with her 19th-career double-double and fifth in her last six games, tallying 19 points and 12 rebounds. Senior Hannah Cook added 15 points, all in the second half, including going 3-of-5 from beyond the three-point line. Sophomore Jordan Lewis also scored in the double figures with 11 points.
Central Catholic alum and Alabama senior guard Meoshonti Knight scored six points and added one rebound.
Alabama outrebounded Southern, 50-26. In addition to Williams’ 12, sophomore Jasmine Walker grabbed eight, freshman Ariyah Copeland, seven, and Cook, six.
While Alabama never trailed and led by as many as 10 in the first quarter, Southern kept coming back, narrowing the lead to three going into halftime.
In the second half, after the Tide led by 15 with just under three minutes to play in the third quarter, the Jaguars whittled the Alabama lead to six with 7:35 left in the fourth quarter before the Tide put the game away.
The Tide will face Central Florida Sunday at 2 p.m. in Coleman Coliseum. The Golden Knights downed Jacksonville, 65-60, in first-round action.
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Central Catholic High School’s Bryce Grizzaffi threw his second no-hitter in a week, and Central Catholic run-ruled St. James, 12-0, in five innings Tuesday in nondistrict baseball action.
Grizzaffi, who tossed a no-hitter against Ellender a week ago, pitched five innings and hit two batters while fanning nine.
Offensively, Central Catholic erupted for 10 first-inning runs and added two more in the fourth. The game was called after the top of the fifth inning due to the 10-run mercy rule.
Grant Stansbury led the Eagles with a 3-for-3 performance with a double, an RBI and a run. Other top Central Catholic offensive contributors were Grizzaffi, 1-for-3, a triple, two RBIs, a stolen base and two runs; Brooke Thomas, 1-for-3, a double, two RBIs and a run; Tyler Longman, 1-for-2, two RBIs and a run; Hunter Daigle, 1-for-2, an RBI and two runs; Thomas Mire and Nathan Hebb, each 1-for-2, an RBI and a run; and Luke Barbier, 1-for-3 with an RBI and a run.
Central Catholic (7-5) will return to action Friday when it plays Episcopal at Ascension Catholic’s tournament in a 3:30 p.m. contest before facing St. John at 8:30 p.m. Thursday.
Assumption edges
Berwick
Assumption scored a combined six runs during its final four at bats to turn a 4-1 deficit into an eventual 7-5 victory against Berwick in nondistrict action in Berwick Tuesday.
Trailing 4-1 after three innings, Assumption scored three runs in the fourth to tie the game at 4.
While Berwick retook the lead at 5-4 in the bottom of the fifth, Assumption countered with three runs in the top of the sixth.
Early on, Berwick led 1-0 after an inning and 2-0 after two complete.
While Assumption cut its deficit to 2-1 in the top of the third, Berwick scored two runs in the bottom of the frame.
Berwick outhit Assumption 11-5, but the Panthers committed two errors, walked four Mustangs and hit three more.
Kyle Pitre, Patrick Robertson and Zeph Hoffpauir led the Berwick offense. Pitre was 2-for-4 with a triple and two RBIs, while Robertson was 3-for-4 with two stolen bases. Hoffpauir finished 1-for-4 with a home run, an RBI and a run. Other top Berwick offensive contributors were: Lucas Hatch, 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI; Reid Wiley, 2-for-3; Mitchell Sanford, 1-for-2, a double, a stolen base and two runs; and Kyle Boudreaux, an RBI.
Pitre suffered the loss. In 5.2 innings, he surrendered seven runs (five earned) on five hits with four walks, three hit batters and seven strikeouts.
Berwick (8-4) will return to action Thursday when it opens paly in Ascension Catholic’s tournament against Brusly at 6:30 p.m. Brusly was a 3A state semifinalist a year ago.
Terrebonne
shuts out MCHS
Terrebonne High School shut out Morgan City, 5-0, Tuesday in Morgan City.
Terrebonne scored four runs in the second and another in the seventh.
The teams combined for just eight hits as Terrebonne had six and Morgan City, two.
Morgan City committed two errors.
Logan Tingle suffered the loss. In seven innings, he surrendered five runs (one earned) on six hits with three walks and seven strikeouts.
Offensively, Mitchell Mancuso led Morgan City with a 1-for-3 performance with a double.
Morgan City (7-7) will return to action Thursday at Lutcher’s tournament. Morgan City will play South Plaquemines at 4 p.m. at St. Amant.
Last week while my neighbor down the street, Gilbert Ramagos, was cleaning his yard, he got a big surprise. A snake came crawling out from under a dog house that he was moving.
“I immediately froze up – like ‘what’s going on here,’” Ramagos said. “I was like, what’s happening – you know. My first instinct was to kill it, but I kind of calmed down a minute and went and got something to put it in. I got a stick and captured it, because I wanted to find out what kind of snake it was before I killed it.”
My neighbor subsequently came down to my house, where I happened to be pruning some trees in my yard. Basically, I was doing the same thing everyone does when spring weekends are so pretty and you’ve let your yard go much of the winter. Once the martins start showing up, you know it’s time to get outside and do something.
Ramagos showed up in my drive in his pickup truck, and in the bed was a rectangular fish aquarium with a snake in it. Asking me what kind of snake was it, I told my neighbor I wasn’t exactly sure initially, though I knew it was poisonous because it had elliptical eyes.
It resembled a water moccasin, but for some reason, the color and pattern of its skin looked a bit like a copperhead.
So, I went inside the house and dug out my Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries poster of Louisiana’s common species of snakes. It helped me dial in a little closer.
The snake had wide black markings through the sides of its head, which leaned more towards being a water moccasin (aka: cotton mouth). I was about 90 percent sure at that point but didn’t want to risk my full reputation as an outdoor writer on it. So, my wife took photos with her cell phone, and the next day, I sent them to Jeff Boundy, a Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries herpetologist.
Boundy came back the same day and said, “John, correct, on the cottonmouth dark face.” He also sent me a picture of a copperhead, showing the sides of its face. It was pale as could be with no black.
“In the Morgan City area, the venomous ones are the cotton mouth, copperhead, timber or canebrake rattlesnake, and the pygmy rattlesnake,” Boundy said. “The pygmy is only on Avery and Cote Blanche islands.”
Essentially, this is the time of year that people need to be aware that snakes are out now that the weather is warm. It’s also this time of year that folks like to put in their gardens, touch up and mulch their flower beds and just do general cleanup of their yards, besides mowing.
According to Bounty, there are 47 different species of snakes in Louisiana, of which seven are poisonous. My Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries poster was not a comprehensive list of all species, just the more common.
People need to take caution when cleaning their yards.
“My advice for folks is to keep your lawn mowed and always watch where you put your hands and feet,” Bounty said. “And for snake bites, snap a quick picture with the camera phone, and go straight to medical help – no first aid, just go!”
Things people should consider when cleaning up debris such as brush piles during the early spring are to wear proper clothing. Working in shorts and flip-flops may keep you more comfortable on a warm day, but they do nothing in terms of protection from poisonous snakes and insects.
It’s better to wear a long-sleeve cotton shirt, jeans, leather gloves and even knee boots when do general yard cleaning.
One other thing: There are lots of plastic children’s toys like slides, castles, and sand boxes that are ideal locations for snakes to lay under during the winter. Be sure to check inside and around these large yard toys before letting your children play on them.
It’s important to know that not all snakes are bad. Some snakes, like the common ribbon snakes and speckled king snakes, are pretty docile and beneficial in that they eat mice, rats and other critters that crawl.
“I’ve caught some other snakes in my yard – they were little bitty,” Ramagos said. “But, not ever a poisonous one like this one!”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Flores is The Daily Review’s Outdoor Writer.
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Franklin Banner-Tribune
P.O. Box 566, Franklin, LA 70538
Phone: 337-828-3706
Fax: 337-828-2874
Morgan City Review
1014 Front Street, Morgan City, LA 70380
Phone: 985-384-8370
Fax: 985-384-4255