The jury in the trial of Jose Manuel Garcia-Guevara deliberated only an hour before returning a verdict of guilty for a heinous crime. The jury found Guevara-Garcia guilty of second-degree murder, aggravated rape and aggravated burglary.
In probably the only move left to him, Brandon Scott Lavergne pled guilty today to the murders of Michaela “Mickey” Shunick and Lisa Pate. And, in doing so, he revealed the heartbreaking story of how everything went down on that fateful night back in May when Shunick went missing — and on another night in 1999 when he killed Lisa.
Former Calcasieu Parish Tax Assessor Richard Cole has pled guilty to two counts of malfeasance in office today after investigators found that $48,000 of personal expenses were charged to his office credit card. Cole was indicted in October 2010 after an audit showed the fiscal discrepancies. He stepped down from his post in January of this year.