Shooting victim had long record

A 24-year-old New Orleans man once accused of plotting to kill an 11-year-old witness in a murder case was shot to death Sunday while driving through a 7th Ward neighborhood.

Kenel Schneckenburg was driving north in the 1700 block of New Orleans Street about 1 p.m. when two men fired several bullets into his car, according to a New Orleans Police Department incident log.

One of the bullets hit Schneckenburg in the chest, said John Gagliano, the coroner's chief investigator. New Orleans EMS paramedics took him to University Hospital, where he died during emergency surgery, Gagliano said.

Schneckenburg had a long criminal record.

According to court records, Schneckenburg spent two years in prison after pleading guilty to a 2004 crack-possession charge.

Criminal District Court Judge Julian Parker also sentenced Schneckenburg to six months behind bars in 2006 for harassment for his role in a jailhouse plot to kill an 11-year-old who eventually testified against the man who killed his uncle, James Robinson Jr. The boy was the only living witness after his mother, Keisha Robinson, was killed as she returned home from a meeting of the grand jury investigating the death of her brother.

Schneckenburg and two others were charged with witness intimidation. But after Bryan Mathieu was convicted in 2005 of killing James Robinson, Schneckenburg pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of harassment by telephone in 2006.

Schneckenburg has had other serious run-ins with the law, including arrests for murder that never resulted in charges.

In 2001, Schneckenburg was booked with two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the fatal shootings of Reginald Foley, 16, and Julian Paige, 24, outside Paige's home on St. Ferdinand Street. Prosecutors under former District Attorney Harry Connick declined to charge him in either killing.

He was also indicted in 2007 in the death of Jealine Brown. Police believe Brown was killed on her bed by burglars who broke into her home the morning of Jan. 5, 2007, in search of money and drugs. The Orleans Parish district attorney's office declined to prosecute the first-degree murder charge, according to court records....