Seal witness IDs, prosecutor asks
GONZALES — Fears of witness tampering and intimidation led Ascension Parish prosecutors to ask a court to keep the defendants in a July 3 Donaldsonville shootout from knowing the identities of key witnesses against them until the day of the trial, according to court filings.
First Assistant District Attorney Chuck Long is seeking to seal the identities or have the court issue a protective order for key witnesses to the nighttime shootings that started outside a McDonald’s restaurant on La. 3089, records show.
The requests pit the defendants’ right to face their accusers guaranteed by the Bill of Rights with prosecutors’ attempt to protect vulnerable witnesses.
Long argued in a series of filings last month that Larry Miles, Malcolm Oliver Jr., Demetoris Chris Williams and Anthony Marquette Clark would try to intimidate or bribe the witnesses if their identities are known too soon.
The prosecutor wrote in a Dec. 7 discovery response for Miles that key witnesses have indicated an unwillingness to testify and be identified.
“One critical witness in particular told detectives that the reason he or she does not want to testify in this case is because of the violent nature of the defendants,” Long wrote.
Long pointed to a shooting in Welcome Park in the west bank community of St. James in September 2010.
Four witnesses implicated Oliver in the shooting initially but later recanted through similar form letters.
The prosecutor wrote the letters were “highly suspicious,” given detailed taped statements St. James Parish sheriff’s investigators collected from the witnesses.
On Sept. 7, Oliver pleaded guilty to inciting a riot and illegal use of weapons but an attempted second-degree murder count was dropped, Long wrote.
Long wrote other examples are being investigated.
Judge Thomas Kliebert Jr. is set to hear arguments at 1 p.m. Wednesday at the Ascension Parish Courthouse Annex in Gonzales.
Also on Kliebert’s docket Wednesday is a motion Miles made on his own behalf to have Long recused in a separate March 2008 attempted second-degree murder case.
Miles alleges the prosecutor believes Miles put out a contract hit on him. Miles denied the allegation in his motion.
District Attorney Ricky Babin said Tuesday that Ascension Parish sheriff’s deputies did not find enough evidence to bring charges after investigating threats against him and Long.
Babin said only that the source of the threats came from the Ascension Parish Jail via an inmate letter.
“I am not going to allow anybody to make a threat and use that as a basis to recuse us off the case,” he said.
In the July 3 shootings, Miles, 22, then of 924 Elizabeth St., Donaldsonville, and Oliver, 21, then of 120 Vickie Drive, Napoleonville, are accused of exchanging fire with Williams, 21, then of 1108 S. Hempshire, Gonzales, and Clark, 21, then of 205 E. Roosevelt St., Gonzales.
The shootings, which prosecutors alleged stemmed from an argument Oliver had with Williams and Clark, later carried into nearby Elizabeth Street.
Two people were wounded by gunfire and nearly 60 spent rounds were collected from the scenes of both shootings, sheriff’s deputies have said.
The men face counts of attempted second-degree murder and aggravated assault with a firearm or being principals to those counts, according to charges. The men remain incarcerated.
Long has declined comment on either case.
In the July 3 shootings cases, he is seeking to depart from a standing practice in the 23rd Judicial District of turning over the entire investigative file to defense attorneys and instead limiting discovery to the minimum required by law.
Part of that request would seal supporting documentation for arrest warrants until the day of trial or redact identifying information from them.
These affidavits of probable cause often review key evidence and witness statements authorities say provide “probable cause” to make an arrest.
Defense attorneys had not filed responses by Tuesday afternoon. Attorneys for Clark and Oliver did not return messages for comment Tuesday.