GARYVILLE, La. — “Oh my God, they're taking 'Quanna to jail.”
Those were the alarming words Stephanie Cage heard when she got a phone call about her daughter Jaquanna Cage being arrested last month by St. John Parish deputies.
Word spread quickly to the rest of Cage’s family and friends when she was taken into custody on May 19 at a pre-kindergarten graduation for her niece at Garyville Mt. Airy Magnet School. Cage, 25, was arrested along with Nick Malancon, 24, and a 16-year-old juvenile for illegally carrying a firearm at a school.
While the sheriff’s office accused Malancon and the juvenile of physically carrying the weapons at the school, Sheriff Mike Tregre said Cage was not seen with her weapon.
Tregre said she was arrested because of a handgun found inside of her car following her interactions with the other two suspects.
Cage's family maintains that she attended the event separately from the other two, entering the school by herself. They say she was still inside when a tip led deputies to approach Malancon and the juvenile outside of the school building. They say her gun was legal, registered and safely locked inside her car when deputies arrested her.
“Jaquanna went there by herself and they're (sheriff’s office) saying something else on the news,” Stephanie Cage said
“They came in two separate cars. They wasn't together. Even the footage shows that Jaquanna walked in by herself," Her cousin, Roy Cage, said.
Tregre said video evidence shows the juvenile and the 24-year-old Malancon each carrying guns after his office received a tip alerting them to graduation scene.
Tregre acknowledged that Cage's gun was found inside her car. And, under Louisiana law, gun owners can keep firearms inside of a vehicle, which is treated just like keeping a gun inside of a home.
Longtime criminal defense attorney Craig Mordock said that the charge of illegal carrying of a firearm, in a school zone or otherwise, is a misdemeanor that hinges on a suspect actually carrying or brandishing the weapon. It’s known as “constructive possession.”
"Is she in any kind of violation whatsoever? And the answer to that is no,” Mordock said. “If the gun is locked in a car, then they do not have possession of the gun.”
Tregre acknowledged a person's right to have a gun in a car, but said in this case, video evidence shows Cage interacting with the other two suspects.
On top of that, he said when the juvenile tossed his gun to the ground as he was running away from deputies, it landed near Cage's car.
“When the juvenile fled from us, he discarded the weapon right by her car. Which brought us to that weapon and looking in her car,” he said. “Why did she have to have a gun on her at a kindergarten, pre-kindergarten graduation?”
Cage's family, friends and other supporters say that Cage should not be lumped in with the other two suspects and that deputies illegally searched her car to find her gun.
A grainy cell phone video appears to show deputies forcing their way into her car while it is parked at the school.
“They actually went in her vehicle on the scene,” Roy Cage said. “What judge in America is going to give you a search warrant without probable cause in 17 minutes? It just don't happen.”
Cage, as well as Melancon, remains locked up at the St. John Parish jail, being held on a bail of $250,000, an amount usually seen when someone is booked in a crime of violence.
In other metro parishes, such as Orleans and Jefferson for example, bail for illegal carrying of a firearm is usually set under $10,000.
“I really want my child out of there,” Stephanie Cage said. “My child is not a bad child. Never been in trouble, and I don't understand the bond. That's ridiculous. That's like if you killed somebody or something.”
The juvenile suspect was released into the custody of his family.
While the sheriff's office had nothing to do with Cage's bail, Tregre defended his deputies' decisions as appropriate given the “totality of the circumstances.”
He noted the disturbing national increase in school shootings, as well as a trend toward more people resolving disputes through acts of gun violence.
“I don't believe anybody should be going around children at a pre-kindergarten graduation based on everything going on in this world, in this country,” Tregre said. “Let's try to protect everybody. That's what our goal was. That's what our mission was. We'll turn the case over to the district attorney and we'll see what happens.”
Cage’s family says they, too, are eager to get her case looked at by the DA's office because they believe she is innocent and deserves to come home.
So far, presenting that case has been challenging. According to Cage's family, she has not been appointed a defense attorney and court records show that no follow-up court date has been scheduled in her case.
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