New Orleans DA's office granted multiple breaks to violent criminals
WWL Louisiana's Mike Perlstein shows how the Orleans Parish DA's Office has granted multiple breaks with some defendants ending up back in jail for worse crimes.
Debbie Desselle’s reaction when she found out that the person who broke into her son's truck and stole her gun last March was the man her son took under his wing and hired to help set up booths for conventions.
“Honestly, I wanted to hurt him. I did. I was so upset,” Desselle said.
That was Debbie Desselle's reaction when she found out that the person who broke into her son's truck and stole her gun last March was the man her son took under his wing and hired to help set up booths for conventions.
Desselle and her son knew that Nicholas Brown was a felon with an extensive drug history, including prison time after convictions for heroin, methamphetamine and probation violations.
“How could somebody that he was trying to help do this to him so blatantly?” Desselle asked, her voice rising with indignation.
Like most car burglars looking for guns, Brown probably would have gotten away with the crime. But Desselle had other ideas. She
went through hours of security video until she discovered the break-in.
“I went through almost 12 hours of videos before we found it, and when we found it, it was just, it was heart-wrenching to watch,” Desselle said.
Then her son, trying to get the gun back, received a text message from Brown that amounted to a confession.
“I’m going to get it for u…I’m going to get it for u even if I have to buy a brand new one,” the text reads.
In addition to burglary, Brown was booked with being a felon with a firearm, a crime that carries a minimum five-year prison sentence.
Desselle came ready to testify at his trial on April 8 when she was slammed by another surprise.
“I saw him sitting on a bench with his attorney signing paperwork,” Desselle recalled. “The DA walked up to me and told me a deal had been made. There was going to be no trial.”
*Story continues below photo of Judge Marcus DeLarge
She also learned there would be no prison time. Instead, the DA's office allowed Brown to plead to attempted possession of the gun and Judge Marcus DeLarge sentenced Brown to two years on probation.
Desselle insisted on giving a victim impact statement.
“I said, how can you do this when I have him admitting he stole the gun?” she asked.
Desselle stumbled across a hidden and rarely discussed trend at New Orleans Criminal Court: leniency for dozens of defendants facing the five-year minimum for being a felon with a firearm.
“You would assume that they're getting at least five years. And when we look at the data, we're seeing that that's not necessarily the case,” said Rafael Goyeneche, president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, a non-profit criminal justice watchdog group.
Case of Darnell Hunter
The case of Darnell Hunter is a haunting example.
Hunter, 33, was a repeat felon battling mental illness and drug addiction when he was arrested for an attempted robbery with a gun. He pleaded guilty as charged to being a felon with a firearm, yet despite being re-arrested in two brutal stabbings, he was given probation through a legal provision known as a “downward departure.”
After his release, Hunter was re-arrested in another stabbing, this one fatal.
“Darnell Hunter is a prime example of that, but he is by no means the only example of that,” Goyeneche said. “There are dozens and dozens every year of cases that fall into that same category.”
*Story continues below video
Court records show that in addition to the New Orleans DA's Office agreeing to downward departures, prosecutors also offer plea bargains to “attempted” possession of a firearm by a felon, a conviction that can carry probation.
“When you see attempted possession, of a firearm by a convicted felon, it is just a get out of jail free plea,” Goyeneche said.
That was the plea offered to Brown, along with a sentence of probation.
Desselle was in disbelief.
“How can you agree to an attempted possession of a stolen firearm by a felon when he admitted to stealing the gun? In writing? Where is the attempt?” she asked.
A statistical analysis by the MCC shows that out of 286 felons with gun cases in 2022 and 2023, only about one-third of the defendants got sentenced to five years or more. More frequently, the sentence is probation.
So far, records show that most of the defendants have stayed out of trouble.
Yet dozens have been re-arrested, some for shocking crimes, such as Darnell Hunter.
Serial offenders
In a statement, the New Orleans District Attorney’s office wrote that in Hunter’s case, like so many others, “there is no crystal ball.”
While acknowledging Hunter’s lengthy criminal history, the statement noted that some of the evidence in the recent cases against him was less than airtight.
“No one of these matters were a slam dunk,” a spokesman wrote.
However, the Metropolitan Crime Commission notes that the track record for felony gun defendants released on probation is troubling. Goyeneche urged the DA’s office to pursue the cases more aggressively.
“When they're back out on the streets, many of them get rearrested within a short period of time for other serious felony offenses,” he said.
Consider the following cases pulled from New Orleans court records:
- Talya Smith was caught last year as a felon with a gun, but was allowed to plead guilty to the lesser charge of carrying a gun with illegal drugs. After getting probation, he was re-arrested last month. Police say he was dealing drugs in the French Quarter, this time with a machine gun.
- Malcolm Wylie Jr. pleaded guilty to being a felon with a gun in 2022, but was given a downward departure and probation. He then turned up wanted by police in the fatal shooting of a 14-year-old in January, before Wylie himself was gunned down in March.
- Mertis Wade pleaded guilty last year to 'attempted possession of a gun by a felon' after he was caught with a stolen pistol. After getting probation last October, he was booked in March for second-degree murder.
The DA’s office did not address these individual cases, but in its statement, the office generally defended its prosecutions.
“Firearms cases often come with some of the most challenging facts to present to jurors and prove beyond a reasonable doubt,” the spokesman wrote, “We aggressively accept cases and pursue felony dispositions, where the facts warrant, in our effort to remove firearms from the streets.”
The statement continued, “DNA and fingerprint evidence is rarely readily available - especially for stand-alone gun offenses. Often, firearms are discarded, or are situated at a distance from a perpetrator. And sometimes, no firearm is ever recovered. These factors cause significant juror confusion. We routinely and successfully pursue public safety outcomes despite these obstacles.”
Passing the test
Goyeneche has urged the office to be more diligent. He argued that gun cases are often more prosecutable than other types of crimes because the primary witnesses are trained police officers rather than ordinary citizens or rattled victims.
And, he said, officers are taking note when they see people they arrested quickly back on the street.
“The police department is arresting the same people over and over again. It frustrates the officers. It undermines the public confidence in the criminal justice system,” Goyeneche said.
In Nicholas Brown's case, one strict condition ordered by Judge DeLarge was drug testing. DeLarge added a stern warning that if Brown knows he won't be clean “wear some extra socks or underwear that day because you're going to jail.”
But on his first drug test date on April 26, Brown was a no-show. DeLarge issued a bench warrant for his arrest.
“To me, he's laughed in that judge's face,” Desselle said. “People have to stand up to these criminals and say, enough is enough.”
Brown was picked up last week by Jefferson Parish deputies. Court records show that DeLarge ordered him released days later and set a new date for June 10.
Desselle vows to be there.
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