NEW ORLEANS — After five years of delay, the man accused of killing a Little Woods couple in front of their children has been scheduled to stand trial on Mon., May 13, after the trial was pushed back again on Monday.
Gregory Heisser III, 23, and Danisha DeSilva, 22, were killed in front of two of their small children at their Little Woods house in October 2018. However, Kenneth Augustine, 34, the man charged with their murder has not yet stood trial for allegedly killing the couple.
Heisser had been holding one of his children when he was shot in the chest, another child was nearby. DeSilva, who had been inside ran to the back but was allegedly followed by Augustine and shot also.
According to DeSilva's cousin, relatives had to clean the parents' blood off the two children who witnessed the shooting afterward.
Hours later, Augustine was booked with two counts of second-degree murder and locked inside the Orleans Justice Center, with an over one million dollar bond.
Lurline LaBeaud-Duncan, Heisser's mother, said she was confident that the court would rule in favor of her family this time.
"My faith in God is telling me ... my family is favored and we're going to get the result," LaBeaud-Duncan said on Monday. "It may not be today – obviously – but my family is going to have justice."
Once charged by a grand jury in 2019, Augustine pleaded not guilty to the murder charge, as well as one count of obstruction and one count of possession of a firearm. But the trial saw repeated delays throughout that year and then was further put on hold in 2020 and 2021 when jury trials were suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to NOLA.com in 2022, 85 percent of all first and second-degree murder cases were suspended due to the pandemic and left unresolved.
Most recently in July 2022, the trial was delayed after a psychiatrist said that Augustine was mentally incompetent and could not stand trial as a result.
According to NOLA.com, those concerns were not raised until June 2022, only a month out from that trial. Prosecutors had accused Augustine of faking his mental health condition to delay the trial.
That was not the first time the double murder trial was delayed. In 2019, a New Orleans grand jury handed up a slew of criminal charges, including second-degree murder.
The delays in the trial have cost the court witnesses to the killings including DeSilva's mother and grandmother, who both died from COVID-19 in August 2021. A third witness also died around that period from other causes.
Augustine also faces charges from his time inside the Orleans Justice Center, in May 2022 he allegedly stabbed another man in the ear with a homemade shank. He was charged with aggravated battery and possession of contraband for the stabbing.
According to court dockets, once inside OJC, Augustine was also charged with one count of simple escape and another count of attempted simple escape.