Stampley banned from courtroom
Accused killer Trucko Stampley flew into a violent rage Tuesday and was removed from the courtroom for the rest of his first-degree murder trial after his former girlfriend testified she overheard Stampley in April 2007 saying he had killed two people.
In all, Stampley — who is charged with four counts of first-degree murder — disrupted the trial three times Tuesday, including once after he had been banned from the courtroom.
State District Judge Bonnie Jackson first admonished Stampley after he was seen making an obscene hand gesture to retired Terrebonne Parish sheriff’s Detective Leroy Lirette while Lirette was testifying about a fingerprint found inside a stolen car located in Houma on April 26, 2007. Lirette said the fingerprint was Stampley’s.
The car, a Toyota Avalon, belonged to Denise Pedescleaux, who — along with her mother, Marie Pedescleaux — was found shot to death April 25, 2007, in her Crown Avenue home in Glen Oaks. Two days later, the bodies of Charles and Ann Colvin were discovered in their Thibodeaux Avenue home in Goodwood Estates.
“If you do anything at all to disrupt this proceeding, you will be removed from the courtroom,’’ Jackson warned Stampley after observing his obscene gesture. The jury was not in the courtroom when the judge issued her warning.
It didn’t take long for Stampley to violate Jackson’s order.
The very next witness was Stampley’s ex-girlfriend, Melissa Rhear, who testified she was on the phone with Stampley on April 26, 2007, when she overheard him talking to another person.
“I overheard a conversation he was having with someone else, telling a story about how he killed two people,’’ said Rhear, of Houma.
At that point, Stampley sprung from his chair, threw a notepad across the courtroom at Rhear and yelled obscenities at her before East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s deputies physically removed him from the courtroom through a side door.
Prosecutor Darwin Miller, who was questioning Rhear, escorted her from the courtroom. She was in tears.
Jackson sent the jury from the courtroom and announced that Stampley would listen to the remainder of the trial from a holding cell just outside the courtroom or across the hall, “preferably across the hall’’ so he would not further disrupt the trial.
Before recessing the trial for lunch, Jackson assured the 12 jurors that they were safe.
“I don’t want any of you to be concerned. Everything is under control,’’ she told the panel.
When Rhear resumed her testimony after lunch, Stampley’s continued yelling from his holding cell could be heard inside the courtroom.
“I heard him say he was walking up to a house ...’’ Rhear began to testify until Stampley’s hollering grew so loud that Jackson again sent the jury out of the ninth-floor courtroom.
“We’re going to have Mr. Stampley removed to the 11th floor,’’ the judge stated.
Once again, a visibly upset Rhear was taken from the courtroom while Stampley was moved to the top floor. One of his attorneys joined him for the rest of the day.
When Rhear resumed her testimony for a final time, she said Stampley was “bragging, not sad,’’ in the conversation she overheard on April 26, 2007. Then Rhear continued to tell the jury what she started to tell them before Stampley first interrupted her.
“I heard him say he was walking up to a house and there was someone outside. They (that person) had a look in their eye that something bad was going to happen. The person went back inside. He (Stampley) got into the house. Trucko Stampley shot the person. A lady came in from another room and he shot that person too,’’ Rhear testified.
Before her phone conversation with Stampley ended, Rhear said, she heard running, someone shouting “get down, put your hands on your head’’ and “put it down.’’
Baton Rouge Police Department Sgt. Wayne Martin had testified Monday that Stampley was on a cellphone in the backyard of a home on Monroe Street in Baton Rouge on April 26, 2007, when he and other Special Response Team members confronted Stampley and arrested him following a violent struggle.
Stampley’s lead attorney, Daryl Gold, told reporters that Stampley was forewarned about what Rhear was going to say on the witness stand.
“I’m not surprised at what happened. I had a feeling something like that would happen,’’ he said.
“We don’t have any control over the defendant,’’ East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore III stated. “We’ll continue to present our case in a professional manner.’’
Gold said he is unsure how Stampley’s tirade and removal from the courtroom will affect the case.
“You can’t ask for a mistrial when you create it,’’ he acknowledged.
A mistrial is what could happen if any more jurors are excused. Before testimony began Tuesday, Jackson excused two female jurors and replaced them with the only two alternate jurors. One juror was removed after she disclosed that her brother is a potential defense witness. The other juror was let go because she informed the court that her father, who lives in Houma, is the first assistant district attorney in Terrebonne Parish.
Moore and Gold said the case must be heard by 12 jurors.
Even though it is a first-degree murder case, only a 10-2 verdict is required to convict Stampley because prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty. Prosecutors made that decision to expedite the long-running case to trial.
Baton Rouge police detective John Dauthier, the lead detective in the Colvin case, testified Tuesday that the semiautomatic handgun taken from Stampley when he was arrested was a .380-caliber. Live .380-caliber rounds also were recovered from Stampley, Dauthier said.
Dauthier said .380-caliber shell casings were found at the Colvin home.
Baton Rouge police detective Robert Gann, the lead detective in the Pedescleaux case, testified Monday that .380-caliber shell casings were found at the Pedescleaux residence.
Dauthier also said he believes the Colvins were killed April 24, 2007, even though their bodies were found April 27, 2007. Dauthier and Gann both testified that surveillance video from the Walmart at Cortana Place shows Stampley in a Buick LeSabre the night of April 24, 2007. A 1998 LeSabre was stolen from the Colvin home, the detectives said.