Judge upholds arrest in deaths
OPELOUSAS — A state judge ruled Tuesday that Eunice police officers did possess enough probable cause to arrest Warren “Boo Boo” Gautreaux in the January 2006 slayings of an elderly Eunice couple.
Judge James A. Doherty issued his ruling late Tuesday after listening to about six hours of testimony in 27th Judicial District Court from three officers and one of Gautreaux’s alleged lifelong friends who testified Gautreaux confessed to killing the couple during a break-in at their home.
The judge said probable cause was met by statements police received from Gautreaux’s ex-wife, one of Gautreaux’s friends and two women who said they overheard Gautreaux planning the break-in with a second man, Quinten Ceasar.
Gautreaux’s attorney, Richard C. Goorley, had requested a preliminary hearing before the court to argue officers lacked probable cause to arrest his client in the stabbing deaths of Youric Courville, 83, and his wife, Mary Ann, 70.
That request came one day after state Judge Donald Hebert ordered Ceasar’s release from jail on the grounds that officers lacked probable cause to arrest him.
Both Ceasar and Gautreaux were arrested in November on two counts each of first-degree murder in the slayings.
Police Detective Ron Whaley, the lead investigator in the case, was the only officer to testify during Ceasar’s hearing; his testimony was criticized by Hebert for its “startling lack of specificity,” according to news reports.
On Tuesday, Whaley was joined by Lafayette police detectives Paul Trouard and Christine Bernard, both of whom served with Whaley on a multi-agency task force formed last year to solve the killings.
During Whaley’s cross-examination by Goorley, the detective repeatedly asked for permission to consult his investigative file; on several occasions he admitted to not being able to find information he believed to be in the file.
“I want to remind you that you’re under oath and you’re not supposed to be making stuff up as you go along,” Goorley told Whaley.
Whaley replied that he was not.
The task force examined the work from two previous investigations into the case, one by a previous task force in Eunice and a second by the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office, which at one point took over the case, Whaley said.
“We came up with new witnesses that didn’t want to speak before,” Whaley testified.
Whaley based much of his testimony on the newest task force’s interviews with Charles Fontenot, an alleged long-time friend of Gautreaux’s; Rita Labbe, Gautreaux’s ex-wife and the mother of his child; Jimmie Lee, an acquaintance of Gautreaux’s; and Robert Quebedeaux, another alleged long-time friend.
The investigation revealed Gautreaux and Ceasar had initially planned to rob a convenience store, but changed their plans on the night of the slayings when they found several police cars outside of the store, Whaley said.
Gautreaux then told Ceasar about an elderly couple who lived in a nearby neighborhood, and who were believed to have money and prescription drugs in their home, Whaley testified.
When one of the victims caught the men inside the home and recognized Gautreaux, “that’s when it came about where Mr. Gautreaux hurt the old people,” Whaley testified.
Whaley also testified the defendant allegedly confessed to several people he shared jail cells with at different points after the slayings.
One of the Lafayette detectives, Trouard, testified Labbe spoke with the task force last year for the first time about her ex-husband’s alleged involvement.
Labbe told police that Gautreaux confessed to her on the night of the slayings that “The old lady would not shut up so he had to choke her and stab her,” Trouard said.
During cross-examination, Goorley pointed out the investigation’s shortcomings: It lacks confessions from either suspect, DNA on either suspect, fingerprints or other physical evidence from either suspect, eyewitnesses to the killing or a murder weapon.
The defense attorney also challenged the credibility of statements from Charles Fontenot and several others, as they were initially identified as suspects themselves.
Some of those individuals also gave contradictory statements or made statements years later, Goorley said.
There were numerous suspects in the case, Trouard said, but Gautreaux was the only one whose name appeared in every story involving the crimes.
The detective added people change their stories all the time and it is not unusual for people to come forward with information years later to “tell the truth.”
A shackled and chained Fontenot testified Tuesday that Gautreaux confessed to him several days after the slayings while sitting underneath a tree on College Road in Eunice.
Fontenot said Gautreaux blamed the killings on drugs and told him that he could not believe he had hurt the couple.
Gautreaux told him that Ceasar was with him during the killing, Fontenot said.
Under cross-examination, Fontenot testified he is serving time on a parole violation for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
He said he has previously served time for convictions in burglaries and robberies.
He did not talk to police about the Eunice killings until April 2006 because “I didn’t want to say anything,” Fontenot said.
The allegations against Ceasar also could still go before a grand jury.
Gautreaux will return to court March 1 for a scheduled bond hearing before Doherty.