Sources close to the investigation of Brandon Scott Lavergne in the death of 21-year-old UL Lafayette student Mickey Shunick say Lavergne’s attorneys negotiated a plea bargain with the district attorney’s office that will avoid a lengthy death penalty trial. Instead, the 33-year-old registered sex offender will serve a life sentence for her kidnapping and murder. Shunick's body was discovered in rural Evangeline Parish Tuesday, buried near a small church cemetery located between Reddell and Oakdale.
Any plea agreement would have to be accepted by the district judge assigned to the case.
 |
|
| Mickey Shunick's alleged killer, Brandon Scott Lavergne, led prosecutors to her body Tuesday and now faces life in prison. |
The Independent has confirmed through multiple sources that the “very credible” tip investigators received about the location of Shunick’s remains came from Lavergne, who for reasons law enforcement won’t disclose was checked out of the Lafayette Parish Correctional Center by the Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office Tuesday at 6:40 a.m. and brought back to the facility between 3 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. A “custody form” from LPSO states his check-out time as 6:40 a.m., and LPSO spokesman Kip Judice, who consulted with the deputy who signed Lavergne out, provided the return time to The Independent. “Any destinations beyond LPSO would have to be answered by the Lafayette Police PIO,” Judice says.
“We were with the sheriff’s office when they signed him out,” says Lafayette Police Department spokesman Cpl. Paul Mouton. “We worked jointly with them.” Mouton would not say why Lavergne was checked out or whether he was brought to Evangeline Parish Tuesday to assist in the location of Shunick’s remains.
In all likelihood Lavergne’s cooperation was key in the plea negotiation; prosecutors indicated soon after his July arrest that they would seek the death penalty. Prior to the discovery of Shunick’s body — forensic evidence is still being processed to make a positive identification and determine the cause of death — legal experts The Independent consulted believed Lavergne might avoid a death penalty trial if he cooperated by telling investigators where to find her remains.
Sources say that Shunick’s family was consulted during the plea bargaining process, but the family has not confirmed its involvement.
“To my knowledge, no plea bargain has been arranged,” Shunick’s father, Tom, told The Independent through Margaret Bearb, a friend of the family who often spoke to the media on behalf of the search operation.
The Independent was unable to determine what the potential guilty plea in the Shunick case will mean for the other murder charge Lavergne faces — the 1999 killing of 35-year-old Lisa Pate. Prosecutors dropped a bombshell July 5 when they successfully secured a first-degree murder indictment against Lavergne for Pate’s death — who like Shunick disappeared without a trace — while also indicting him for the aggravated kidnapping and first-degree murder of Shunick. District Attorney Mike Harson told The Daily Advertiser in late July that it was likely the cases would be tried together, which also may indicate that a deal was worked out for both murders.
Lafayette criminal defense attorney William Goode, who is not involved in either of these cases, says if a plea bargain for a life sentence was struck, it could cover any additional crimes Lavergne may be linked to down the road. Goode notes that as part of a potential plea bargain, Lavergne may have agreed to two life sentences that would run consecutively. "I would try to get the state to let this be the end of it," the attorney says. "In other words, if they determine there is something else out there he would already be in jail for life."
 |
|
| Prosecutors allege Lavergne also killed Lisa Pate, who like Shunick disappeared without a trace in 1999. |
Lavergne’s defense attorney, Burleigh Doga, declined comment for this story, as did Assistant District Attorney Keith Stutes, the lead prosecutor in the Shunick and Pate cases.
The pain from the loss of their beloved Mickey its own life sentence, the Shunick family — while it will likely avoid the years-long agony associated with a death penalty case — is just beginning its mourning process. “Reality hits hard,” Bearb says.
MAY 24 Blogger Robert Mann posts this entry about the Baton Rouge Chamber's recent report on Louisiana's higher education system. It's critical to economic development, and yet our system is facing a "funding crisis" with no way to resolve it, the report says. The Chamber says control of tuition and fees must be returned to the higher ed governing boards.
MAY 24 Here's a NBC33 story about Tyrann Mathieu. He has signed with the Arizona Cardinals, inking a $3 million, four-year deal. He gets a signing bonus of $265K, but gets another, larger bonus if he doesn't get cut from the team for doing drugs. The deal reportedly includes mandatory tests and meetings for the player.
MAY 24 Jarvis DeBerry posts here about the redonkulus rhetoric that would have us believe NOLA is a safe city with a murder problem. Maybe the city's crime stats don't compare with its murder stats because you can't manipulate a murder, he says: a dead body's a dead body. It just doesn't make sense, he says, and his readers agree: a poll asks if they believe the city is safe, and more than 90 percent say no.
MAY 24 Jindal administration officials announced Thursday that the privatization of public health care is going to cost a lot more than they budgeted for, the Advocate reports here. "I'm so surprised," said no one. Anywhere. The cost they're projecting now is more than $1 billion - a lot more than the $626 million budgeted for it. And, it's more than it cost the state to operate those hospitals. So why are we doing this again?
MAY 24 Blogger CB Forgotston ridicules the recent PR campaign by the state GOP in the wake of a legislative auditor's request to both major parties. The GOP (apparently unaware that the Dems got the same request) started yammering about being targeted because it had "killed" a tax increase. CB finds that laughable, but it's also pretty funny that the GOP was comparing this episode to the IRS scandal (Because the President has so much to do with our state auditor. Right?).
MAY 24 Politico details some recent fund-raising efforts by Sen. David Vitter, which have raised the question of his future political plans. This time, it is a $5,000 per head "bayou weekend" that includes "Cajun cooking" and an all-caps "alligator hunt," the story reports. Funds raised go to a super PAC that can spend money to support Vitter in federal or state races, the story points out.
MAY 24 The pink building on Royal in the quarter was sold at a sheriff's sale Thursday, this Picayune story reports. An injunction that would have halted the sale wasn't enforced because the family failed to post a $150,000 bond, the story reports. So the owner of the mortgages on the building bought it, for nearly $7 million. Now the feuding family will have to negotiate with that company to get a lease on the building that has housed their business for close to 60 years.
MAY 23 This post in Louisiana Voice tells us about a bill by a Winnsboro lege that would require all public high school students to take at least one Course Choice online class in order to graduate. (What?) Blogger Tom Aswell says it's a monument to "waste and corruption," especially in light of the problems he's exposed with the program in recent weeks. Idaho had a similar program, but voters removed it by a 2-1 margin, Aswell says.
Most Read
in case you missed it
Subscribe to this comment's feed