GRETNA, La. — A 60-year-old Harvey man has been convicted of killing his girlfriend by strangling her with a zip tie during an argument outside of her apartment in November 2020.
Dennis Sheppard will be sentenced to mandatory life without benefit of probation, parole or suspended sentence at a hearing Oct. 30, according to the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office.
The jury took only 36 minutes last Thursday to convict Sheppard of second-degree murder in the killing of Jyra Holmes.
Sheppard killed Holmes on Nov. 2, 2020 outside of her Harvey apartment. Witnesses said Sheppard exclaimed “She wanted me dead and now she’s dead, after he killed her.
Deputies who responded to the scene found Holmes dead. A U.S. Marshals task force took Sheppard into custody in Bay St. Louis a few days later.
In court, Sheppard’s attorney said the killing should not be second-degree murder, but, instead, at worst, a manslaughter case of a crime committed in the heat of passion.
