EAST JEFFERSON CRIME NEWS

Tracking local crime and police news in New Orleans, Louisiana

Twenty-seven months after he was accused of murdering his estranged wife, Vince Marinello travels to Lafayette today, so his attorneys, prosecutors and the judge can question potential jurors.

Continue reading "Potential jurors for Vince Marinello trial to be questioned today in Lafayette" »

One of four men killed during a shootout at a Marrero bar last month was hit by a bullet fired by the bar owner as he exchanged gunfire with robbers, according to testimony Tuesday during a court hearing for two of the five suspects.

Continue reading "One killed in deadly Marrero bar shooting hit by bullet fired by bar's owner" »

Burglars took a priest's chalice from a Kenner Catholic church this past weekend, along with money in an offering box, police said Monday.

Continue reading "Priest's chalice stolen from Kenner church" »

The second suspect in the Nov. 6 homicide on Focis Street in Metairie has been arrested after a helicopter chase in Los Angeles, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office said today.

A Sheriff's Office spokesman said Joseph Cammatte, 30, of New Orleans was picked up Saturday by the Los Angeles Police Department "after a pursuit where their helicopter was used to track and apprehend him."

Continue reading "Helicopter chase in Los Angeles nabs Metairie murder suspect" »

Burglars heisted a priest's chalice from Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Church in Kenner over the weekend, along with money in an offering box, police said today.

Continue reading "Burglars hit Kenner church, steal chalice" »

Just hours after Jason Alexander shot and killed his ex-girlfriend and then committed suicide next to her in the front yard of her Kenner home, many of Alicia Fruge's relatives gathered midday Thursday to share their grief.

Continue reading "Kenner murder-suicide binds families in grief" »

Kenner Police are investigating a murder-suicide involving a man and his estranged girlfriend that occurred early this morning in the front yard of her residence in the 3400 block of East Louisiana State Drive, according to spokesman Shaun Watson. Continue reading "Man kills ex-girlfriend, then commits suicide in Kenner yard" »

A Metairie man who used Hurricane Katrina repair loans from the federal government to buy a car, a boat and a house was sentenced Wednesday to four months in prison.

Continue reading "Katrina fraud sends Metairie man to prison" »

Boy, was I pleased when Barack Obama won the election. At last, I thought to myself, we'll be rid of U.S. Attorney Jim Letten. Letten is a newspaperman's nightmare. You can't laugh at him because he never says anything stupid. You can't blast him because he is scrupulously fair. He works tirelessly putting crooks in stir, but is a most amiable fellow. He is an absolute dead loss.

So, thanks for nothing, Mary Landrieu. Just because Letten has done an exemplary job during the Bush administration, the doyenne of Louisiana Democrats does not think he should be replaced.

Continue reading "James Gill: U.S. Attorney General Jim Letten -- Society's gain is newshound's loss" »

Federal authorities have arrested a security contractor for the Travelodge Hotel in Kenner after he twice placed an object that appeared to be a pipe bomb outside a hotel property, then reported false bomb threats to the hotel manager and law enforcement, according to a statement from a U.S. Attorney spokeswoman.

Continue reading "Security guard accused of pipe bomb hoax at Travelodge Hotel in Kenner" »

Vandals used rocks and brick fragments to smash windows on 26 vehicles in northwest Metairie, and investigators are seeking tips on finding the culprits.

Continue reading "Metairie vandals smash windows on 26 vehicles" »

Sheriff's investigators were called out to a shooting on the corner of Jefferson Highway and Lauricella Avenue in Old Jefferson this morning, according to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office.

Continue reading "Police investigate shooting in Old Jefferson" »

A New Orleans man has been arrested and a second man is being sought in the investigation of a drug-related fatal beating at a Metairie house, authorities said this afternoon.

Continue reading "1 arrested, 1 sought in Metairie drug killing" »

The man who lives in a Metairie house where an acquaintance was fatally beaten during a burglary has an "extensive" arrest record, a Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office spokesman said today.

Ronald Graci, 60, has been arrested numerous times on gun, drugs and burglary charges, said Col. John Fortunato, who said the killing at Graci's house appears to be related to illegal drugs.

Continue reading "Metairie killing thought to be drug-related" »

A man who was attacked during a Metairie house burglary died this morning at East Jefferson General Hospital, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office said today.

Continue reading "Man dies after being attacked during a house burglary on Focis Street in Metairie" »

The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office has linked a pair of carjackings that occurred in Old Metairie last week and have made two more arrests in the case, authorities said.

Continue reading "2 held in Old Metairie holdups; 2 others suspected in Jeff carjackings" »

The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office has beefed up patrols in Old Metairie after a pair of carjackings this week.

Continue reading "Patrols increased after Old Metairie carjackings" »

A 21-year-old man was arrested after he allegedly tried to run down New Orleans police officers who had pulled him over because they suspected he was carrying narcotics, police said.

Continue reading "Man charged with trying to run down cops" »

A burglary ring responsible for as many as 15 break-ins in St. Bernard, Orleans, Jefferson and St. Tammany parishes has been broken up, the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office said.

Continue reading "Two arrested in connection with burglaries, St. Bernard cops say" »

A college lecturer has been arrested for exposing himself over the World Wide Web to what he thought was a juvenile in an undercover Internet sting, Kenner police said today.

Continue reading "La. Tech teacher admits using Web to solicit sex" »

A Metairie man entering his apartment was beaten, robbed at gunpoint then locked inside a closet, according to Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office incident report.

Continue reading "Metairie man beaten, robbed, locked in closet" »

A 20-year-old Kenner man who authorities believe sold crack cocaine to undercover police officers last year was gunned down in a Kenner playground Saturday night.

Continue reading "20-year-old Kenner man shot to death" »

Vince Marinello's attorneys want a judge to toss out his second-degree murder case on grounds that a member of the grand jury that indicted him could also be a witness to his estranged wife's death. Continue reading "Marinello pre-trial hearing to take up issues of bigamy and grand juror conflict" »

Kenner police have arrested two men they say are responsible for a series of vehicle burglaries that occurred in the Driftwood Park subdivision in Kenner last week, according spokesman Lt. Wayne McInnis.

Continue reading "Two men arrested for vehicle burglaries in Kenner" »

A judge in Gretna today is expected to decide today whether rapper Corey "C-Murder" Miller will be retried for second-degree murder this week, amid an election in which his case has become a campaign issue.

Continue reading "C-Murder seeking to delay murder trial; jury selection scheduled to begin today" »

A Jefferson Parish Sheriff's detective has been arrested and fired after authorities said he saw 27 different doctors over the past two years to fraudulently obtain prescription drugs.

Continue reading "Jeff detective arrested on drug charges" »

For months after Lon Adams' 81-year-old father died, the decomposing body lay in an upstairs bedroom of the Metairie home they shared, raising questions that not even Adams can answer.

"He died. I couldn't deal with it so I just left him there, " Adams said Monday while fighting back tears. "I blocked it out of my mind. I was stressed out after Katrina. I just, just don't know."

Continue reading "Man admits harboring his dad's skeleton" »

Lon Adams put his ailing father to bed one day and, authorities said, never checked on him again.

Leroy Adams, 81, died in that bed, and there his body lay for months -- possibly more than a year -- until only a skeleton remained. Lon Adams has said he never physically harmed his father, but the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office believes differently, and booked him Wednesday evening with second-degree murder.

Continue reading "Metairie man accused of murdering father; leaving the body to rot in bed" »

Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand will hold a news conference this morning to discuss
details surrounding a bank burglary, a warrant issued in the death of a Metairie man, and a criminal investigation of one of his detectives, according to sheriff's office spokesman Col. John Fortunato.

Continue reading "Sheriff to give details today of Jefferson Parish probes" »

The man accused of shooting his wife at her Metairie workplace this afternoon has been booked with kidnapping and attempted murder.

Continue reading "Suspect booked in shooting at Metairie clinic" »

Former New Orleans television and radio personality Vince Marinello's murder trial will start on Dec. 1, a judge ordered this morning.

Continue reading "Marinello trial set for December" »

Two Kenner men remained in jail Monday after carjacking a pizza delivery driver and causing a five-car wreck that tied up Interstate 10 traffic in Metairie, police said.

Continue reading "Kenner robbers caused I-10 crash" »

U.S. District Judge Thomas Porteous admits he came to depend on alcohol to get through the day and that he was addicted to gambling. He does not deny that he submitted false statements in his personal bankruptcy, on his annual financial disclosure forms and on his application for a bank loan. He concedes that lawyer friends bailed him out of one financial jam after another over the years, even when they had cases pending in his court.

Continue reading "Bar high, standard vague for removing federal judge" »

A man leaving his south Kenner workplace Thursday was shot to death in the parking lot by three men who pulled up in a light-colored sport utility vehicle, police said.

Damien Verrett, 29, died steps away from the door of Pelican Ice at 711 Oxley St., where he worked as a clerk, Kenner police said.

When Verrett stepped outside at 3:45 p.m., the three men jumped from the SUV, said Lt. Wayne McInnis, recounting witness reports. "And they just start shooting, " he said.

Continue reading "Man killed at his Kenner workplace" »

A 22-year-old man was arrested this morning in connection with a murder during an attempted robbery that occurred Sunday in Kenner, according to a Kenner Police spokesman.

Continue reading "Suspect arrested in Kenner murder" »

Authorities have determined that a suspicious package found Wednesday afternoon at the Coast Guard's Bucktown headquarters was harmless.

Continue reading "Coast Guard station given the all clear" »

Hurricane Gustav evacuees Sandy Labourdette and her husband had just set down their luggage in the lobby of a Selma, Ala., hotel on the night of Aug. 31 when they received a telephone call from a neighbor saying their Metairie home was already being looted.

Continue reading "Cops probe rash of looting reports in East Jefferson" »

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee could form a task force as early as Wednesday to examine the case for impeachment against federal Judge Thomas Porteous.

Committee leaders called today for a vote to jumpstart the congressional inquiry into Porteous' alleged misdeeds, including accusations of bankruptcy fraud, perjury and wanton gambling. The move signals the first actions in Congress to examine the Porteous case since the Judicial Conference of the United States, led by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, recommended in June that the House go forward with impeachment proceedings.

Continue reading "House panel moving on Porteous impeachment" »

A construction worker was killed as he tried to flee two robbers behind his home in south Kenner, police said Monday.

Continue reading "Man killed in Kenner robbery try" »

A two-year-old Metairie boy drowned Saturday afternoon in a swimming pool adjacent to his home, according to Sgt. Larry Dyess of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office.

Continue reading "Metairie toddler drowns in neighbor's pool" »

Citing complications caused by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, the judge presiding over Vince Marinello's murder case called off the trial this afternoon, two days before potential jurors were to report to a courthouse in Lafayette.

A new trial date was not set, but it is expected to happen before the end of the year.

Continue reading "Marinello trial delayed again" »

A customer and a robber exchanged gunfire outside a Kenner tire shop Monday.

Continue reading "Customer, robber trade gunfire in Kenner" »

A Metairie man arrested last Thursday in the burglary of an Uptown home is also wanted in several crimes in Jefferson Parish and Kenner.

Officers with the New Orleans Police Department's 2nd District booked David Lemoine, 46, as the man responsible for an Aug. 10 home burglary in the 7100 block of Walmsley Avenue, according to information released by the NOPD.

Continue reading "Man arrested in Uptown burglary wanted for crimes in Jefferson Parish, Kenner" »

A Kenner woman denied today that she chased down her sons' school adversaries, swung at one of them and instigated a brawl

Continue reading "Mom denies instigating sons' fight" »