First time in 25 years two jointly indicted defendants were convicted in St. Landry Parish
OPELOUSAS, La. (KLFY)-- This week's historic convictions of Marcus Chenier and Jevon Figaro were the culmination of a three-year story that began with a manhunt after the murder of Kelly Guidry.
Kelly Guidry was shot in January 2021 on the corner of N. Market and Cheney Streets and would die from his injuries that night at a local hospital.
"We had two shooters that was confirmed by firearms experts," Federal prosecutor Laura Signorelli said. "There were about 20 shell casings collected at the scene. It was a lot of shots in a very short period of time."
The two shooters would be identified by law enforcement as Chenier and Figaro.
As Opelousas police began searching for the two suspects, things took a turn when the men were on the run.
"We had the defendants fleeing the state on a plane to Vegas," Signorelli said. "Within I think two and a half hours after the shooting, they purchased the tickets. They were on a plane in Houston less than 12 hours later. So, it was a process of tracking them from the time of the murder to the time that they landed in Las Vegas."
Opelousas police requested the assistance of the U.S. marshals to travel to Las Vegas and capture the suspects and bring them into custody.
After a 7-day trial, both men were found guilty of second-degree murder, the first time two jointly indicted defendants were both prosecuted and convicted in the parish in 25 years.
"I think given the nature of how crime is evolving, crime is being committed by groups against groups," Signorelli said. "We have to take a very aggressive approach to that. We have to address the way that crime is occurring, if we're going to have any impact on it. And so this is what we'll do. We'll take an aggressive approach and prosecute these cases as they come to us."
Signorelli hopes these more aggressive approaches to convictions will send the message that it's time for these acts of violence in the parish to come to an end.
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