Sometimes all it takes to invoke irreversible tragedy is a simple game of chance — where one of the players has a violent background and a penchant for harming another human being.
Such was the case when Baton Rouge police responded to the scene of a dice game where murder rolled up as a fatal pair of snake eyes.
By about 1:30 a.m., things heated up to the point of mayhem as the players began to argue about the stakes. At the height of the argument, the defendant allegedly fatally shot one player and bashed another unconscious.
The question many are asking, however, is how the volatile man was not only free but equipped with a gun. With his involvement with police authorities going all the way back to his 17th birthday, he was only released from state custody in October 2006 (for armed robbery), followed by an end to his state supervision in 2008.
Ironically, he was arrested later in 2008 on weapons charges in Baton Rouge that sat without resolution for five years.
Just a month before the current changes, the defendant pleaded guilty to attempted possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and was sanctioned with probation and a suspended sentence from the state district judge.
The scene was set for the fatal game of chance.
The justice system sometimes works slowly and ponderously, but citizens are constantly reminded that the system is there to protect the victim and well as the alleged perpetrator. In the case of our defendant who turned a game of chance into Russian Roulette, prosecutors are hustling to file a motion to have his probation revoked, locking him away without a chance for parole until he ultimately faces trial in the dice game slaying.
Source: The Advocate, “BR murder suspect had lengthy criminal history” Jim Mustian, Jun. 11, 2013
Subscribe To This Blog's Feed