Laura's Babies
07-01-2006, 08:11 AM
This is what I call swift justice!
http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/3263336.html
LIVINGSTON — A Livingston Parish trial jury on Friday condemned Gerald Bordelon to death for raping and murdering his 12-year-old stepdaughter in 2002.
“She was only 12 years old — a child — when you took her from me,” the victim’s older sister, Megan Boudreaux, told Bordelon in the 21st Judicial District Court in Livingston on Friday.
Bordelon kidnapped his stepdaughter, Courtney LeBlanc, at knifepoint, taking her to Mississippi and forcing her to perform oral sex on him in November 2002. He later drove to East Baton Rouge Parish, bringing her to a wooded area by the Amite River where he raped her and killed her.
Eleven days later, Bordelon confessed to killing the girl and led authorities to her half-naked body lying face-down in the mud along the banks of the Amite River.
Those actions led to the jury’s 54-minute unanimous decision to convict him of first-degree murder Thursday. It took the same jury 45 minutes to bring District Court Judge Bruce Bennett a verdict of death by lethal injection after listening to two hours of testimony in the trial’s penalty phase Friday morning.
Their unanimous decision, read aloud in court by the clerk, was greeted by laughter and tears from LeBlanc’s family, prompting the judge to call for order by banging his gavel.
Later in the lobby outside of the courtroom, LeBlanc’s relatives hugged, kissed and cried together.
“I’ll never have my daughter back, but I do feel justice has been served,” LeBlanc’s mother, Jennifer Kocke, said.
Bordelon appeared to show no emotion after hearing his fate and was immediately placed in handcuffs by deputies and the warden of the Livingston Parish Prison.
As he was escorted out of the courtroom, he told reporters gathered nearby that he expected to be sentenced to death.
Bordelon’s family — his parents, sister, daughter and niece — solemnly filed outside the courtroom after the decision was read. They, too, congregated outside the courtroom, but their mood was somber.
The convicted killer’s sister, Cindy Landry, said that Bordelon’s daughter mourns for him, but that the rest of the family is holding up. His execution is years away, and Landry said that she believes her brother will be spared on appeal.
http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/3263336.html
LIVINGSTON — A Livingston Parish trial jury on Friday condemned Gerald Bordelon to death for raping and murdering his 12-year-old stepdaughter in 2002.
“She was only 12 years old — a child — when you took her from me,” the victim’s older sister, Megan Boudreaux, told Bordelon in the 21st Judicial District Court in Livingston on Friday.
Bordelon kidnapped his stepdaughter, Courtney LeBlanc, at knifepoint, taking her to Mississippi and forcing her to perform oral sex on him in November 2002. He later drove to East Baton Rouge Parish, bringing her to a wooded area by the Amite River where he raped her and killed her.
Eleven days later, Bordelon confessed to killing the girl and led authorities to her half-naked body lying face-down in the mud along the banks of the Amite River.
Those actions led to the jury’s 54-minute unanimous decision to convict him of first-degree murder Thursday. It took the same jury 45 minutes to bring District Court Judge Bruce Bennett a verdict of death by lethal injection after listening to two hours of testimony in the trial’s penalty phase Friday morning.
Their unanimous decision, read aloud in court by the clerk, was greeted by laughter and tears from LeBlanc’s family, prompting the judge to call for order by banging his gavel.
Later in the lobby outside of the courtroom, LeBlanc’s relatives hugged, kissed and cried together.
“I’ll never have my daughter back, but I do feel justice has been served,” LeBlanc’s mother, Jennifer Kocke, said.
Bordelon appeared to show no emotion after hearing his fate and was immediately placed in handcuffs by deputies and the warden of the Livingston Parish Prison.
As he was escorted out of the courtroom, he told reporters gathered nearby that he expected to be sentenced to death.
Bordelon’s family — his parents, sister, daughter and niece — solemnly filed outside the courtroom after the decision was read. They, too, congregated outside the courtroom, but their mood was somber.
The convicted killer’s sister, Cindy Landry, said that Bordelon’s daughter mourns for him, but that the rest of the family is holding up. His execution is years away, and Landry said that she believes her brother will be spared on appeal.