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| Photo by Travis Gauthier |
In state district court today, Lavergne changed his not-guilty pleas to guilty and will spend the rest of his life doing hard labor at Angola, where he was immediately taken after today's court appearance.
The state’s evidence laid out the details of Shunick’s May 19 struggle with her attacker, leaving him with several stab wounds and nearly severing his finger. His suspicious injuries and the arson he committed to destroy evidence led to the first real break in the case, a tip Lafayette Police received June 14.
Assistant District Attorney Keith Stutes confirms that the state would not budge on a plea agreement unless Lavergne told them how he killed Shunick and Pate. Lavergne also had to tell authorities where to find Shunick’s body. He pointed out the Evangeline Parish location on a map last week but did not physically lead investigators to the site, Stutes says. Lavergne was out and about that day, however, re-creating the entire incident for investigators.
The evidence presented in court today revealed that Lavergne trailed Shunick on the morning of May 19, even switching lanes to follow her. Lavergne had been driving around that night in his white Chevrolet Z71, making several calls to escort services from his cell phone. About mid-way between Dean Street and Coliseum Road, he struck her bike and she was thrown from it. He approached her and some sort of encounter ensued, after which Lavergne insisted she get into his truck. The court documents state that she was enticed, persuaded or forced into his truck, Lavergne had a knife and a gun in his possession, and her damaged bike was placed in the bed of the truck.
When Lavergne was driving away from the scene, Shunick grabbed her cell phone and attempted to make a call, at which time
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| Photo by Travis Gauthier |
Believing she was dead, he drove for 30 to 40 minutes to a sugar cane field in north Acadia Parish to dump her body. “Suddenly, Mickey jumped up,” the statement reads. She got the knife again and lunged at Lavergne, stabbing him in the chest. Lavergne pulled out his semi-automatic gun and shot her in the head, killing her instantly.
The evidence shows that he drove to his home with her lifeless body in the passenger seat. He attempted to clean his wounds before driving her to Evangeline Parish to bury her, but because of the severity of his cuts, he was unable to dig a grave and left her body there in a nearby tree line. He covered it with branches and debris.
On the way to see a friend out of town to help establish an alibi, Lavergne dumped the bike off of the Whiskey Bay exit and was later treated for his injuries at a New Orleans hospital. When he returned May 20, he went to the Evangeline Parish site and buried her body. He then went home to burn her book bag and other evidence, according to the court document.
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The evidence laid out in the Pate Case reveals that Lavergne and Pate spent several days together in mid-1999. When she asked to return home to see her children, he refused. Lavergne attacked and killed her, choking and smothering her with a plastic bag, after she tried to steal his keys and wallet in order to leave.
Though Lavergne was initially uncooperative with officials, Stutes says the “bombshell of a double indictment” likely weighed heavily on his decision to cooperate. “He hit the wall at some point,” the prosecutor says. Stutes would not say what additional evidence the state had in the Pate case that helped secure an indictment this time around. In 2008 an Acadia Parish grand jury found that there was not sufficient evidence to indict Lavergne for second-degree murder.
Stutes says he is unaware of any other cases involving Lavergne but did confirm that evidence taken during a search of Lavergne’s home may lead to additional investigations.
Friday's hearing brings a devastating close to the disappearance of Mickey Shunick, a story that captured hearts and headlines both locally and nationwide. Lavergne's plea agreement was reached Aug. 7, just 20 days after Stutes secured the indictment.
Defense attorney Burleigh Doga described his client as “very, very remorseful,” noting that he was crying in court today during Stutes' telling of the Shunick murder (Lavergne's back was to the courtroom). Doga says his client made it clear that he wanted to avoid putting the victims’ families and his own family through a lengthy capital murder trial.
Read the full court document here.
JUNE 19 Former Saint Steve Gleason, who is paralyzed by ALS, released a statement Tuesday in response to the Atlanta radio station's skit making fun of him and the disease, this Picayune post reports. What did he say? He said he'd accepted the apology of the DJs who did it, notes that at least the incident has got people talking about ALS, and asks anyone who is burning to take action about it to do so -- by helping him fight ALS.
JUNE 19 Blogger Ian McGibboney takes a look at the Gleason incident in this post. He makes a good argument about the difference between having free speech and being free from consequences for your speech (which none of us is). He also admits that many of us got upset before we listened to the skit -- but lets us know that the reality is far worse than we can imagine. It was the incredibly bad judgment, even more than the actual speech, that probably got those DJs fired, he opines.
JUNE 19 Washington Post blogger Aaron Blake writes about Sen. Guillory's switch to the GOP in this post. He writes what most political watchers in Louisiana know: Guillory was a Republican before he decided to run for the senate seat in a mostly-D St. Landry district, and has switched back now that he plans to run for Lt. Gov. in a mostly-R state. But how come Blake missed Guillory's appearance on a TLC pageant show? Now that is a video we'd like to see. (Again).
JUNE 19 Here's another Washington Post blog post about a Louisiana politician, and it's just plain scathing. Ezra Klein says Jindal's Politico post was "insulting" to the intelligence of voters, and adds that Jindal is personifying the "stupid" he's railed against, by being an "elite" who convinces GOP activists of "things that aren't true." Me-ow.
JUNE 19 Here's Gov. Jindal's post in Politico, in which he asks the GOP to get over losing to Obama (again) and stop "the bedwetting." (Uh, what?) He gives his Republican buddies what is probably a nerd's idea of a coach's motivational talk, which starts with a list of accomplishments that they can't seem to exploit and ending with an absurd description of liberals that sounds like a character treatment for a Fox "News" movie scripted by Gordon Liddy. Sure, he's preaching to the choir, but even the choir's not this gullible.
JUNE 19 Lamar Parmentel read Gov. Jindal's post on Politico, but thinks it was so dumb it probably was published in the wrong paper. This post by Lamar on the Daily Kingfish opines that possibly Jindal's post was destined for the Onion -- because the governor couldn't possibly be serious here. If you listen closely, you can hear the staff of the Kingfish giggling.
JUNE 19 Blogger Robert Mann posts from Turkey, a country he has visited several times in the past few years. Mann gives an interesting overview of the current political and societal climate of the country, which -- if you're living under a rock and don't know -- is experiencing protests and turmoil these days. Mann promises to post as much as he can during his trip, which should be fascinating reading.
JUNE 19 Blogger CB Forgotston says the legislature is keeping the vicious cycle going with its funding of new buildings for the community college/technical college system. Universities across the state need maintenance and improvement on existing buildings, and the solution is to build new buildings at other schools? By the time the bonds are paid off, those buildings will be falling down, too, CB says.
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