19 years after priest’s murder, accused stands trial

Jury selection begins Monday in the state’s first-degree murder case against Derrick Odomes, a 33-year-old man accused of a 19-year-old murder.

Odomes will stand trial for the death of Rev. Hunter Hudson Horgan III, who was found bludgeoned and stabbed in the St. John Episcopal Church rectory in August of 1992.

As the story of the state prosecuting Horgan’s murder reaches its apex, Odomes is facing additional charges stemming from his actions while incarcerated at the Lafourche Parish Detention Center, where he has been held since he was indicted in 2007.

Lafourche Parish District Attorney Cam Morvant II will prosecute the murder case, and New Iberia-based defense attorney Lynden J. Burton will represent Odomes. District Judge John E. LeBlanc will preside over the trial.

Morvant said the 19 years that have elapsed shouldn’t have a bearing on the trial, and the state faces the “usual challenges.”

“I’m confident that we can present our case to the jury,” he said.

If Odomes were to be convicted in Horgan’s death, he would avoid jail time, according to LeBlanc’s ex post facto ruling last year. State law, at the time of the crime, did not allow for a juvenile to serve time past his or her 21st birthday.

Morvant has said his office would appeal LeBlanc’s ruling, contingent on a conviction.

The sentencing issue is premature, but Odomes’ age at the time of his alleged crime was the key fact during pre-trial proceedings, as his defense moved to have the case quashed, according to court records.

Burton argued the 17th Judicial District did not have jurisdiction over the case because Odomes was less than 17 years old at the time of the crime, records show.

The case should have began in juvenile court and been transferred to the district court through the proper avenues, Burton said in the filing.

The state argued the district court maintains exclusive jurisdiction of felony cases and because Odomes was apprehended after his 21st birthday, the juvenile court system and its child-protecting mission do not apply in this case, according to court filings.

LeBlanc ruled in the state’s favor, the Louisiana Supreme Court upheld the decision and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear further appeal.

Slidell lawyer John E. Perry, Horgan’s cousin and the family’s legal representative, said family members did not wish to comment until the conclusion of the trial.

Burton had not responded to a message left at his office by press time.

Jury selection begins at 9 a.m. Monday in Division A at the Old Courthouse, 201 Green St., Thibodaux.

Odomes is also facing an obscenity charge stemming from two years ago. LeBlanc will make the decision as to whether or not it would be heard concurrently with the murder charge, Morvant said.

Lafourche Parish deputy Haley Burkett charged Odomes with obscenity in 2009 after Odomes and a fellow inmate exposed themselves to Burkett while she was obtaining an inmate’s signature from a check, according to the arrest report.

After consulting with a “more seasoned correctional officer,” who witnessed a second bout of exposure from the two inmates, Burkett filed the obscenity charge, the report says.

Odomes has racked up a litany of arrests over the past 16 years, ranging from his first-degree murder charge to multiple DWIs, carjacking, aggravated assault on a police officer, identity theft and writing worthless checks, among others, according to court records.

Most recently, Odomes was sentenced to five years in prison after a jury found him guilty of intimidating Burkett in the obscenity case.

Once Odomes learned of the pending obscenity charge, he questioned Burkett about the charge, according to her testimony in the case, and told her: “It ain’t going to stick. I am going to get out. I’ll get you girl.”

Regardless of the outcome of the trial and the appellate process if he is convicted, Odomes still faces the prospect of life imprisonment via a habitual offender bill the state filed in May.

The bill lists six felony convictions for Odomes: attempted simple escape, convicted in 1996 in the 4th Judicial District; aggravated flight from an officer, convicted in 2000 in the 17th Judicial District; unauthorized use of a movable, convicted in 2002 in the 17th Judicial District; illegal possession of stolen things, convicted in 2004 in the 32nd Judicial District; identity theft, convicted in 2004 in the 32nd Judicial District; and intimidation, convicted in January of this year in the 17th Judicial District.

If convicted, Odomes faces 20 years to life in prison. The matter went to trial yesterday, but results of the case, including whether LeBlanc heard the actual case or postponed it, were not known as of press time.

The court should drop the charges, Burton argued in a court filing earlier this month, because more than 10 years has elapsed since two of the crimes.

Burton also argued that Odomes was not “adequately” read his Boykin rights when he pled guilty to previous convictions.

Before a defendant pleads guilty to any charge, the judge must tell the defendant his or her rights to a trial by jury, protection against self-incrimination and confrontation.

The defendant must voluntarily and intelligently waive these rights to plead guilty.

Assistant District Attorney Kristine Russell, who is prosecuting the habitual offender charge, said the state is maintaining Odomes’ Boykinization was “sufficient, free and voluntary.”

As it pertains to the 15 years that has elapsed since Odomes’ first felony, the habitual offender law dictates, “Any period of parole, probation or incarceration … shall not be included in the computation of any said 10-year period…”

“For his adult life, he’s really only been out of prison for about a year and a half to two years,” Russell said. “He hasn’t been out long, so it’s not just 10 years that we look at. We have to look at periods of time where he would have been incarcerated within that time.”

This is the first time Russell will try a habitual-offender charge.

The DA’s office has won habitual-offender convictions in the past, including last year after Henry Breaux, who had two prior felonies, was found guilty of sexually abusing a girl and was sentenced to life in prison.

“It really is technical,” Russell said of the case. “What we have to do is make sure we go through what is required by law as far as proving Derrick Odomes was the person that sits before us that day … is the same person with those prior convictions.”