The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal issued a ruling today upholding the conviction and sentence of Thornton Gross on felony carnal knowledge of a juvenile and sexual battery charges for which he received a 15-year prison sentence (seven and a half years on each charge with sentences served consecutively). Gross entered a so-called Crosby plea to the charges in October of 2008, the same day he was sentenced. A Crosby plea allows a defendant the right to appeal.
The case stemmed from Gross’ trial and acquittal on a second-degree murder charge in connection with the brutal 2006 rape and beating death of 13-year-old Alexuia Feast; two other defendents were also charged in the case — one was convicted, the other pleaded guilty to a manslaughter charge. In mounting his defense to the murder charge at trial, Gross denied participating in Feast’s killing, but in accounting for the presence of his DNA on her body and clothing, testified that he and the girl had consensual sex earlier on the same day she was murdered. After his acquittal and based on that testimony, the state filed the carnal knowledge and sexual battery charges against Gross.
Gross argued in his appeal that he faced double jeopardy by being tried a second time based on testimony from the first trial. The three-judge 3rd Circuit panel disagreed.
David Calhoun and Elizabeth “EB” Brooks are the first two employees of Lafayette Central Park Inc., the nonprofit charged with turning Lafayette Consolidated Government’s 100-acre Johnston Street Horse Farm property into a passive public park. Calhoun was named executive director, and Brooks is director of planning and design.
At Thursday's State of the Economy luncheon, LEDA President and CEO Gregg Gothreaux said PXP has already quietly hired 180 people for its Broussard expansion.
There will soon be a whole lot of shakin’ going on at Benny’s Sportshack Supplement Depot, a new concept by Opelousas native Benny Nele. Located at 2002 Johnston St., the supplement shop, smoothie bar and café, featuring hot off the press paninis and wraps, plans to open in late May.
This year’s Cool Town issue is all about people who are not native to South Louisiana but made a conscious decision to be here, to be among us, to participate in our culture and contribute to it.
A shelved ordinance transferring $200,000 from a northside drainage project to a south Lafayette development may not break any laws, but it stinks to high heaven.
An effort to restore a shuttered dancehall and document other vacant or razed honky-tonks could serve as a model for saving an endangered species of entertainment.
Lafayette’s gene pool has been host to a long line of eccentric characters who have blurred the lines between crazy, genius, disturbed and curiously entertaining.
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