Around the state
Inmates booked with arson of jail facility
ALEXANDRIA — The Rapides Parish sheriff says two inmates have been accused of starting a fire by burning a hole in a window so they could lower a string to an accomplice on the street and reel up drugs to prisoners.
There were no injuries reported in the Thursday morning fire, which firefighters were able to extinguish quickly.
Sheriff-elect William E. Hilton said the prisoners were trying to get drugs into the prison by burning a hole through a window.
Quentavis Kilpatrick Woodard and Wardell Christopher Williams were booked with aggravated arson after the incident, police said.
More counts are pending, said Detective Bobby Sandoval with the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office.
Houma man arrested in attack on brother
HOUMA — A Houma man was arrested after police said he attacked his brother with a machete, the Houma Police Department reported.
John Roy Dupre Sr., 54, was booked with aggravated second-degree battery.
Police said the brothers had been drinking and got into a fight after midnight on June 24. Officers said Dupre struck his brother, who was not identified by police, cutting his wrist.
A relative took the injured man to Leonard Chabert Medical Center, where he was treated, investigators said.
Dupre was booked at the Terrebonne Parish Jail.
La. Supreme Court disbars ex-senator
NEW ORLEANS — The Louisiana Supreme Court has permanently disbarred a former state lawmaker who pleaded guilty to helping an unlicensed bond broker launder money.
The court ruled last week that former state Sen. Derrick Shepherd’s cooperation with federal authorities didn’t change its conclusion that he deserved to be permanently disbarred.
Shepherd, a Marrero Democrat, was released from a federal prison in Texas to a halfway house in November and is under supervised release.
Shepherd pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in 2008. The unlicensed bond broker, Gwendolyn Moyo, was sentenced in 2009 to 20 years in prison for her role in the money laundering conspiracy.
Convicted killer gets 7 years for felonies
THIBODAUX — A man convicted of killing a Thibodaux priest in 1992 has been sentenced to a seven-year prison term on top of a life sentence he received for unrelated felony convictions.
The seven-year sentence that state District Judge John LeBlanc handed down to Derrick Odomes was the maximum allowed under an appeal court ruling.
Odomes was convicted last year of bludgeoning Rev. Hunter Horgan to death inside his church office. Odomes was 14 at the time of the killing, which occurred inside the rectory of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Thibodaux. He was arrested in 2007.
John Perry, Horgan’s cousin and family spokesman, said Horgan family members are glad Odomes finally received a sentence for the killing itself.
Carrollton drainage contract awarded
NEW ORLEANS — The Army Corps of Engineers has awarded a $27.8 million contract for drainage improvements in the city’s Carrollton area.
Louisiana-based B&K Construction Co. will do the work under a 46-month contract that calls for construction of about 3,400 feet of covered canal structure as well as related work.
The project is expected to be completed in 2016 and is designed to reduce the area’s vulnerability to flooding from torrential rainfall.
Compiled from
The Associated Press
COVINGTON — The St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office says it’s slightly decreasing the millage rate used to calculate the agency’s property tax revenue this year.
Sheriff Jack Strain said on Friday his office will collect at a rate of 11.66 mills this tax year, down from 11.73 mills in 2011.
The millage is expected to generate about $18 million, according to the agency.
Strain said that “in the current economic climate we all have to tighten our belts and do more with less.”
Under the adjusted millage rate, a resident whose home is valued at $100,000 will pay $29.15 in taxes, and a resident whose home is valued at $200,000 will pay $145.75.