Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12
Results 11 to 16 of 16

Thread: Chad Roy Louviere - Louisiana

  1. #11
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Attorney: Killer could have plead insanity

    A convicted killer and rapist who held Houma bank employees hostage more than 17 years ago deserves a reduced sentence because his former attorneys failed to present an insanity defense, his legal team argued during a Tuesday court hearing.

    An insanity defense wasn't used because former Terrebonne Parish sheriff's deputy Chad Louviere unexpectedly accepted the idea of entering a guilty plea, said his former lead counsel David Stone.

    District Judge John Walker continued the hearing, which began earlier this year, to the last week in August.

    Louviere received the death sentence for killing a woman and raping four others in a one-day crime spree in October 1996. He is asking the judge to reduce his sentence to life in prison.

    Stone said when he joined Louviere's defense team 1997 he looked at a number of defense strategies.

    "As I learned the facts of the case, I went through the litany of defenses. Was it self-defense? Was it an accidental killing? The defense that screamed out at me was insanity because of the bizarre set of facts about the crime," he said.

    Stone said the unusual behavior Louviere exhibited during his crime spree began around 8:30 a.m. Oct. 17, 1996.

    That morning Louviere was off duty but still in uniform when he stopped a woman on Bull Run Road, sprayed her with mace and handcuffed her before driving her to a remote sugarcane field, police said. There, Louviere raped her several times.

    Louviere then took her back to her vehicle and gave her 2 options: she could call him again for a date or turn him in to police and he would kill her and her family.

    Around 10:30 a.m., Louviere drove to the Argent Bank - now Capital One - at the corner of Grand Caillou and Moffet roads where his estranged wife was an employee.

    He walked into the bank with a bag containing an AR-15 assault rifle and ordered 2 male customers out of the building before shooting 1 of the 6 women there in the head. The victim, Pamela Duplantis, was a mother of a 9-year-old girl. He also raped 3 women in the bank.

    "There was no indication that anything was wrong with Louviere prior to that day, and then this happened," Stone said. "There wasn't much about it that made a lot of sense. Firstly, he committed so many acts of rape that day, and then he tried negotiating with the FBI for his own release. Something was up."

    Stone said an expert was hired to determine whether Louviere could possibly have split personalities.

    "He was not an easy client. He had dramatic mood swings that flip flopped constantly, and he always talked about there being a conspiracy against him. All of that coupled with his crimes made me figure that there was something going on there," he said.

    The expert told Stone that Louviere did not have a split personality, but his history of mental illness and use of ephedra-laced drugs at the time could lead to a viable insanity defense, he said.

    On Dec. 22, 1998, during Louviere's trial, Stone said he discussed the topic of a guilty plea with Louviere, thinking that may cause the state to waive the death penalty and substitute it for life in prison.

    "He said 'no,' and then 30 seconds later, he said 'yes.' When he said 'yes,' we threw out the insanity defense. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time," Stone said.

    (source: houmatoday)
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  2. #12
    Moderator mostlyclassics's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    Wilmette, IL
    Posts
    627
    "Attorney: Killer could have plead insanity"

    <soapbox on>

    Grrrr . . . not to be a language wonk, but why do we always see the simple past or past participle of "to plead" spelled as "plead"? It's "pled", folks! (Okay, if you're British, it's "pleaded," but this was an article in an American periodical.)

    <soapbox off>
    Last edited by mostlyclassics; 06-11-2014 at 08:00 PM.

  3. #13
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Ex-deputy on death row seeks new trial in Houma murder and standoff

    A former Terrebonne sheriff's deputy convicted of killing a young mother while holding his estranged wife and four other women hostage in a 1996 bank standoff is expected to again appeal his sentence next week, officials said.

    Chad Louviere was sentenced to death in 2000 on charges of murdering 27-year-old Pam Duplantis, raping two other women bank employees and multiple counts of kidnapping during a hostage standoff in the former Argent Bank at Grand Caillou and Moffet roads in Houma.

    New Orleans-based defense attorneys Caroline Tillman and Michael Admirand have filed a motion for Louviere to appear in state District Judge Johnny Walker's Houma courtroom at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.

    Louviere is incarcerated at the state penitentiary in Angola.

    The motion contends "incompetent defense counsel" resulted in Louviere prematurely pleading guilty in 1998, officials said.

    During hearings last year, his trial attorneys said a lack of time and money may have impacted their defense. Former legal counsel Phyllis Mann also suggested the defense team was unable to pay for experts to assess Louviere's mental health at the time of the 1999 trial. Mann said this may have contributed to their inability to enter a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity on Louviere's behalf.

    Louviere had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and psychosis before the incident, Tillman said during the hearings. He also had a family history of mental illness and sexual abuse.

    If the judge finds sufficient evidence of an incompetent defense, Louviere could end up undergoing a new trial this year, Terrebonne Parish First Assistant District Attorney Carlos Lazarus said.

    Louviere has requested a reduced sentence of life imprisonment at the district, state and federal levels over the last nineteen years, the most recent one being at the district level in 2013.

    All of his appeals have been denied by the higher courts, including by the state Supreme Court in 2002 and again by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003.

    Louviere will not receive an execution date until all of his court proceedings are complete, Lazarus said.

    Louviere's 25-hour killing spree began about 8:30 a.m. Oct. 17, 1996. He was off-duty but still wearing his Terrebonne sheriff's deputy uniform, according to police.

    After stopping a woman motorist on Bull Run Road in Schriever, he sprayed her with mace and handcuffed her without warning or explanation before driving her in his patrol car to a remote sugar-cane field. There, Louviere raped the woman several times.

    About 10:30 a.m., Louviere drove to Argent Bank — now Capital One — where his estranged wife was working that day. He walked in with a bag containing an AR-15 assault rifle and ordered the two male customers out of the building.

    Five tellers and the manager, all women, remained inside. Louviere locked the doors, looked from woman to woman, then wordlessly shot Pamela Duplantis, a mother of a 9-year-old girl, in the head. He also ended up raping two other employees.

    In December 1998, Louviere pleaded guilty to the murder of Duplantis. After a four-day trial to determine his sentence, a jury chosen from East Baton Rouge sentenced Louviere to death by lethal injection.

    http://www.houmatoday.com/article/20...9694?p=2&tc=pg
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  4. #14
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Posts
    2,740
    Former deputy gets life in prison instead of death penalty

    A former Terrebonne sheriff's deputy convicted of killing a young mother while holding his estranged wife and four other women hostage in a 1996 bank standoff was resentenced Tuesday to two consecutive life sentences in prison instead of receiving the death penalty.

    As Chad Louviere was sentenced without probation or parole, he will remain in prison until his death, First Assistant District Attorney Carlos Lazarus said.

    Louviere has been appealing the death sentence since 2013. Post-conviction relief hearings, which started January of last year, ended when state District Judge Johnny Walker changed the penalty.

    Louviere was sentenced to death in 2000 for murdering 27-year-old Pam Duplantis, raping two other women bank employees and kidnapping multiple people during a hostage standoff in the former Argent Bank at Grand Caillou and Moffet roads in Houma on Oct. 17, 1996.

    Months of consultation that started around October 2014 resulted in the victims unanimously agreeing to revoke the death penalty rather than undergo the possibility of another trial, the Terrebonne District Attorney's Office said.

    "All the victims and their families have agreed that this agreement is best to bring closure to these terrific events and to ensure that Louviere has virtually no chance of being released from prison," Lazarus said in a statement.

    Debra Dupre Champagne, who was raped by Louviere right before the start of his killing spree, said in a statement Tuesday that she didn't want to experience another round of legal proceedings because she had moved on with her life. Champagne added that her "nightmares had returned" leading up to Tuesday's hearing.

    Champagne said in the same statement that she could not bring herself to trust law enforcement. However, the support of her family, specifically her son, who is a Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries agent, has slowly helped her rebuild her trust.

    Duplantis' family declined to comment on the sentence.

    Over the last 18 months, Louviere had unsuccessfully been seeking a new trial after alleging that insufficient defense counsel led him to enter a premature guilty plea in 1998.

    Louviere claimed to have been denied the possibility of pleading not guilty by insanity because his lawyers did not inform him of his bipolar diagnosis prior to his plea.

    He reaffirmed a plea of guilty to charges of first-degree murder, aggravated rape and aggravated kidnapping Tuesday afternoon.

    Forensic psychiatrist Dr. George Woods, as well as Louviere's attorneys, confirmed their client's mental competency when he agreed to reaffirm his plea.

    "We believe his plea is knowing and voluntary," his attorney Caroline Tillman said.

    In exchange for the life sentence, Louviere also withdrew pending appeals for state and federal proceedings and waived his right to fight over 20 legal claims the court would have tried him on.

    Louviere's attorneys released a statement on behalf of the Louviere family.

    "It has been a long and difficult process, one that has highlighted the importance of recognizing and addressing the mental health issues of people in our communities by assuring that we provide adequate services and support for those in need of help. Our prayers are with the victims and the many people affected by these crimes," the statement says.

    Louviere was returned to the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola following the hearing.

    http://www.dailycomet.com/article/20...9909?p=2&tc=pg

  5. #15
    richard johnson
    Guest
    Legal experts say that’s because a vote for execution must be unanimous. Prosecutors have the option of taking a plea in return for life in prison with no parole.

  6. #16
    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2013
    Location
    Newport, United Kingdom
    Posts
    2,454
    DA office working to return former death row inmate to Angola

    By WWLTV

    The Terrebonne District Attorney's Office is requesting that a former death row inmate be returned to the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola following his recent transfers to two other state prisons.

    Chad Louviere, 43, was convicted of killing a young mother while holding his estranged wife and four other women hostage in a 1996 bank standoff in Houma. The state Department of Public Safety and Corrections transferred Louviere to Elayn Hunt Correctional Center in St. Gabriel from the David Wade Correctional Center in Homer in north Louisiana.

    Elayn Hunt is the second largest prison in the state after Angola.

    "It was our understanding and the victims' understanding that he would be at Angola," Assistant District Attorney Ellen Doskey said, adding the state didn't notify the District Attorney's Office of the transfer. "We are working our due diligence to get him transferred back to Angola."

    There is no legal requirement to inform local agencies and other concerned parties of inmate transfers, said Pam Laborde, communications director for the state Department of Public Safety and Corrections.

    State penitentiary officials have indicated space issues as the primary reason for moving Louviere out of Angola.

    Louviere is serving two consecutive life sentences in prison after pleading guilty earlier this year. The plea spared him the death penalty but ended his appeals. He was sentenced to death in 2000 for murdering 27-year-old Pam Duplantis, raping two other women bank employees and kidnapping multiple people during a hostage standoff in the former Argent Bank at Grand Caillou and Moffet roads in Houma on Oct. 17, 1996.

    Louviere has stayed in what officials refer to a "closed-cell restriction" unit in each of the three prisons that have housed him, Doskey said. He is required to remain for 23 hours inside of his cell, gets two to three hours outside in a fenced yard each week and is allowed four personal visits each year.

    Such cells are reserved for high-security or high-risk inmates who may be unable to survive in the general prison population due to the severity of their crimes or their status as an inmate, officials say. The closed-cell restriction unit at Angola has about 100 cells.

    These units are "designed to protect inmates as well as correctional officers," according to a 2013 news release from state Attorney General Buddy Caldwell.

    Inmates can communicate with other inmates and prison staff, watch TVs through their cell doors, listen to the radio, use reading and writing materials, and shop at the prison store, among other activities. They have limited use of a phone and email and receive visits from religious, medical and psychological professionals, Caldwell noted.

    "Contrary to numerous reports, this is not solitary confinement," he said in the release.

    In a 2007 federal civil suit, Angola closed-cell restriction inmates Albert Woodfox, Herman Wallace and Robert King claimed they were "almost totally deprive[d] . . . of human contact, mental stimulus, physical activity, personal property and human dignity" after spending almost four decades in the unit.

    The three were accused of killing a prison guard in 1972, but their convictions have since been overturned. Wallace and King have been released from Angola, but Woodfox remains in closed-cell restriction after a federal appeals court recently ruled he can be tried a third time.

    http://www.wwltv.com/story/news/loca...gola/76770812/

Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •