NEW ORLEANS — In a juvenile courtroom dripping with emotion, a 14-year-old suspect facing a manslaughter charge accepted a plea deal that requires him to spend six months in detention.
The juvenile defendant pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle for his role in the Nov. 27 fatal carjacking that took the life of 49-year-old Jeannot Plessy.
Plessy and her son-in-law Kristian Sanchez were hit by Plessy’s own car as three carjackers sped away from the driveway of the family’s Gentilly home.
In a sticking point that almost scuttled the plea deal, the defendant will not get credit for time served from the time he was detained on April 10.
The original deal allowed credit for the days he’s been locked up, but Judge Candice Bates Anderson refused to sign off on the more lenient deal.
“This life will never come back,” Anderson told the youngster, who stood expressionless. “This is not like a video game.”
Anderson also sentenced the juvenile to 18 months on parole after he is released.
The 14-year-old was formally sentenced after tearful victim impact statements were made by Plessy’s daughter, Nadia Sanchez, and two sisters, Shalom Kruger and Yma Lechler.
“You decided you would pay any price to get her car and that price was her life,” Sanchez told the defendant as she held up a framed photograph of her mom. “You left them in the street fighting for their lives. You left her for dead right in front of you.”
The two older defendants in the case – 18-year-old Edwin Cottrell and 17-year-old Jontrell Robinson – remain locked up on bail. Cottrell and Robinson face charges in state court that include second-degree murder and robbery. They are each being held on a bail of $510,000.
While the family said they would have preferred a longer term of detention for the 14-year-old, they also expressed hope that the youth would find his way, echoing the church teachings practiced by Plessy as a pastor and missionary.
“Just because you made one really horrible choice, that doesn’t have to be who you are as a person,” Sanchez said. “It doesn’t have to define your life. It doesn’t mean because society has written you off, that’s who you are. My mom spent a lot of time with people who would be considered the least of us.”
According to NOPD, 49-year-old Plessy arrived at her daughter’s home to pick up two of her preteen grandchildren. Plessy was yanked out of her vehicle and thrown to the ground.
One of the three teens climbed into the driver’s seat of her vehicle. When Plessy’s son-in-law heard screams, he tried to intervene. The carjacker then accelerated the vehicle in reverse, striking both Plessy and her son-in-law.
According to NOPD, 17-year-old Robinson admitted to stealing Plessy’s car and backing over her while the 14-year-old used a stolen minivan to bring him to the scene and later help him discard Plessy’s car in New Orleans East.