METAIRIE, La. — Facing the possibility of a serial killer on a violent rampage, Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office detectives used a combination of forensic technology, quick instincts and a bit of luck to make a quick arrest in the case.
Sheriff Joe Lopinto credited all three factors in the arrest of Sean Barrette, 22, at his Metairie home.
“There's a reason that this happened so quickly. In Jefferson Parish, we have the tools to be able to do this,” Lopinto said at a news conference Wednesday.
The element of luck came as deputies processed the scene of the fatal shooting of 22-year-old Isai Cadalzo at the corner of West Metairie and Henry Landry avenues around 11:15 p.m. Monday.
Detectives recovered a cell phone, which the department’s crime lab was able to identify as belonging to Barrette.
“That phone that was recovered to be able to lead to this person's identity. In many jurisdictions around the country it would be sitting in an evidence bag somewhere waiting to go to a crime lab. Having that ability to be able to run that here, in house, to be able to get that information within 12 hours really probably prevented a much bigger tragedy.” Lopinto said.
With Barrette identified, detectives were able to zero in on their suspect, but not before he allegedly struck again in the same neighborhood, along West Metairie Boulevard near North Starrett Road. At about 4:19 p.m. Tuesday, the bodies of as 45-year-old Manuel Caronia, 45, and Nicky Roseau, 57, were found fatally shot inside of a car.
Lopinto said detectives were able to use license plate readers to pinpoint that Barrette’s car and the car the two victims were in the same vicinity a short time before the double-killing.
The two murder scenes are a couple of miles from each other, and also a few miles away from where Barrette’s lives on Trenfy Avenue.
As deputies were staking out Barrette’s home, he pulled up and was arrested, Lopinto said. Upon serving a search warrant at the house, detectives say they found a .40-caliber pistol in a laundry basket.
Quick ballistics tests of the weapon not only linked it to the two Jefferson Parish shootings, but also to another homicide in New Orleans on June 6. In that killing, at the intersection of Hayne Boulevard and Marquis Street in New Orleans East,
Bruce Reed, 61, was found lying dead in a grassy area with multiple gunshot wounds.
Lopinto said his detectives are sharing the information that they gathered with the New Orleans Police Department’s homicide unit.