NEW ORLEANS — A Baton Rouge woman has been found guilty of manslaughter in a March 2022 Bourbon Street shooting that left a Cat's Meow bartender dead.
A jury convicted Daphney Jackson, 25, in the death of 46-year-old Spencer Hudson, who was working at the club when shots were fired outside.
Police had said Jackson, got in a fight outside the Cat's Meow bar and started firing a gun. One of those bullets struck Hudson, 46, in the chest, killing him within moments.
The jury also found Jackson guilty of aggravated assault with a firearm.
According to NOLA.com, these were considered lesser charges in the case.
Prosecutors had sought a second-degree murder conviction, as well as an obstruction of justice charge after claims that Jackson hid the gun after the shooting.
Jackson was found not guilty of those charges.
The bartender, Hudson, apparently was hit so quickly that he did not understand he had been shot. According to NOLA.com, he asked, "What was that?"
Another bullet nicked the neck of Ambrosia Hayes, a 21-year-old Arizona State University student and tourist.
Hayes identified Jackson as the shooter during the trial. She apparently covered the scar from her wound using turtlenecks and high-collared shirts.
Defense attorneys for Jackson said the evidence was, "shaky." One piece of evidence they asked the jury to look past was Hayes' testimony. They argued that she took a selfie and did not call 9-1-1 after the shooting.
"She did not even conceive that she had been shot until Google told her," said attorney Elize Goree.
The bartender's parents had traveled from Georgia to New Orleans for the trial. Spencer had moved here in 2002.
"He loved Cat's. They had great comradery there," said Jennifer Hudson, Spencer's mother.
"It's madness that people are getting killed for no reason," Spencer's father, Felton said. "It's just been a heartache."
► Get breaking news from your neighborhood delivered directly to you by downloading the new FREE WWL-TV News app now in the IOS App Store or Google Play.