Judge scolds killer, gives him 40 years

Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Judge Julian Parker called a convicted killer a liar without remorse before giving him 40 years in prison for a 2007 manslaughter that arose from a family squabble in an Algiers neighborhood.

Ivan Green, 37, who received the maximum punishment for manslaughter available under Louisiana law, was originally charged with murder and attempted murder for shooting at his wife after killing his brother-in-law, Clayton Johnson Jr., 22, the afternoon of Dec. 29, 2007, in Algiers.

"The jury obviously didn't believe you and neither did I," Parker told Green on Friday. "The defense had two witnesses and one of those witnesses perjured himself on the stand. In all the years I've been here, those individuals put on probably the worst perjury job I've ever seen."

During the five-day trial, Green claimed self-defense and his attorney, Martin Regan, presented two witnesses in an attempt to bolster his client's version of events.

One of Green's witnesses appeared in a Copeland's Restaurant uniform and told the jury he worked for the company. But prosecutors called a restaurant manager to the stand who testified that the witness was not an employee.

After more than five hours of deliberations, the jury returned convictions on the lesser charges.

Green and his wife, Katrice Green, had argued violently in the past to the point that Green pawned both their handguns a month before the fatal shooting so that they wouldn't draw them on one another, the jury heard.

But Ivan Green retrieved his gun from the pawnshop hours before the killing. He ended a family squabble in the 3100 block of Mansfield Avenue by shooting Johnson in the chest -- a wound that severed his spinal cord -- and then firing into a car driven by his wife.

Johnson had been described in the past as severely troubled, Parker said, reading a presentence investigation report into the record that said Johnson had been labeled a "homicidal idiot" and mentally ill.

"You were deliberately cruel to a man who, at best, was mentally retarded," Parker told Green. "This is not the way we treat the mentally ill in modern society. You go to your car and get a gun and shoot him down like he's a dog. I've had men before me who have killed dogs who have had more remorse than you had for killing a human being."

Green knew Johnson had a propensity for violence, Parker said, yet he left his children in his care and bought him a beer to drink while he baby-sat.

Green has no prior convictions but Parker noted that he had arrests on allegations of violent acts. Green always claimed he was acting in self-defense or in defense of his family.

Parker also gave Green 15 years for the attempted manslaughter on his wife. The sentences may be served at the same time.

Earlier Friday, Parker closed another violent case with a lengthy prison term for the culprits.

Parker sentenced Dominique Hawthorne, 21, and Rayshaud Green, 20, to 50 years each for a 2008 armed robbery.