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Jurors from outside parish to hear baby burning death case

Barker is accused of asking her girlfriend Felicia Marie-Nicole Smith to kill her son Levi Cole Ellerbe.

The 6-month-old boy, who died Wednesday after being kidnapped and burned Tuesday night, will be buried Friday. He was just shy of being 7 months old.

NATCHITOCHES, La. — Jurors will be brought in from another parish for the trial of a Louisiana mother charged with first-degree murder in the 2018 burning death of her 6-month-old son.

The Alexandria Town Talk reports Hanna Nicole Barker will still be tried in Natchitoches. Barker is accused of asking her girlfriend Felicia Marie-Nicole Smith to kill her son Levi Cole Ellerbe.

Barker's attorney Dru Thompson and Natchitoches Parish District Attorney Billy Joe Harrington agreed Thursday to the use of outside jurors.

Smith also is charged with first-degree murder after allegedly putting the infant in a roadside ditch, dousing him with gasoline and setting him on fire in July 2018.

Ellerbe was found with third- and second-degree burns covering 90% of his body. He later died.

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Jurors in burned baby case will come from outside Natchitoches Parish

CLOSE Jurors from outside Natchitoches Parish will be selected to hear the first-degree murder case of a mother accused in the death of her infant son. The defense attorney for Hanna Nicole Barker, Dru Thompson, had filed a motion for a change of venue, but Thursday he told 10th Judicial District Court Judge Desiree Duhon Dyess that the state agreed to the change.

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