Lockport mom, daughters murdered

A 29-year-old Lockport woman and her two daughters were found dead with stab wounds in a smoldering townhouse duplex early Sunday morning, according to the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Investigators believe an arsonist sparked a fire in the Longville Apartment Complex unit where the family lived to obstruct a triple-homicide investigation, LPSO spokesman Brennan Matherne said.

Jacqueline Gautreaux Nieves and her daughters – Gabriella Nieves, 6 years old, and Isabella Nieves, 20 months old – were found dead in a room on the apartment’s second story. All three had been stabbed at least one time, Matherne said.

On Monday afternoon, LPSO announced that David Brown, a 34-year-old suspect in the case, had been arrested on charges stemming from a separate incident. Brown was named a suspect after he invoked his right to legal counsel while being questioned about the triple homicide.

“We have compelling evidence at this point, and we are working diligently to develop additional leads and forensics that further solidify David Brown’s involvement in this horrific crime,” Sheriff Craig Webre said. “As the investigation continues, we expect to bring additional charges relative to the murders and possibly additional related crimes.”

Brown, of Houma, was arrested on charges of “unauthorized entry into an inhabited dwelling and simple battery stemming from an incident the night of the murders wherein he entered an adjacent apartment and committed a battery on another person within the apartment,” Matherne said.

He is being held on $110,000 bond for the charges. Bond cannot be posted because the Louisiana Department of Probation and Parole has placed a hold on his release.

Brown has an extensive criminal history, including violent crime that dates back to 1994, Matherne said.

Jacqueline’s husband and the girls’ biological father Carlos Nieves Jr., 32, was detained at the scene as “a person of interest” and transported to a LPSO substation for questioning. He was held for several hours and was released Sunday night, Matherne said.

Carlos Nieves answered detectives’ questions and cooperated while he was detained, according to authorities. Matherne would not say if an attorney was present during the interview.

From the outside, on Monday, the duplex unit showed no signs of a fire. Matherne said the interior sustained only smoke damage. Leroy Hebert, a neighbor sleeping under the same duplex roof, said he didn’t smell smoke.

Authorities are awaiting a full autopsy report from the Jefferson Parish Forensic Center. Detectives received the preliminary report Monday.

Carlos Nieves reported smoke in the apartment to authorities at roughly 5:30 a.m., Sunday morning, deputies said. Afterward, he tried to call neighbor and friend Constantine Costin four times and then banged on the neighbor’s door until he woke him, said Costin, who lives in a separate unit.

The neighbor grabbed his flashlight and tried to ascend through the smoke to retrieve the girls, whom he thought were still alive, but it was too thick, he said. First responders arrived almost immediately after he walked back outside.

Firemen were also under the impression the girls were still alive. Because they were trying to save lives, they retrieved the bodies, which could pose problems for investigators, Matherne said.

“Not only has the fire destroyed potential evidence, but then we had to move the crime scene in an attempt to save them,” the sheriff’s spokesman said. “Just from the start … already you have two major factors that could hinder the investigation.

“We’re definitely up to the task, and because of the nature of the crime, we have to be so precise with our investigation. One mistake could potentially harm the case when this is eventually brought to trial.”

Costin said Carlos Nieves Jr. was a pipefitter with Bollinger Shipyards until he was fired earlier this year. Robert Socha, executive vice president for sales and marketing at Bollinger, declined to confirm or deny the neighbor’s claims due to the status of the investigation.

“Bollinger is cooperating with the authorities in the investigation,” Socha said. “That’s about all I can tell you at this time.” Law enforcement has not disclosed Carlos Nieves’ employment history.

Costin, also a “very close” friend of Carlos Nieves, has been questioned multiple times by authorities, he said.

Carlos Nieves, Brown and a third man invited Costin on Saturday to accompany them to Blue Moon, a Lockport bar, Costin said. An unnamed patron at the bar on Monday said Carlos Nieves was at the tavern late Saturday night into early Sunday morning, but the patron did not recognize a photograph of Brown.

Detectives questioned several people, including friends and family members, but Matherne on Monday could not specify who and whether anyone else was deemed a person of interest.

Authorities have not ruled out the possibility that others were involved in elements of the crime.

“At this point, David Brown is a suspect,” Matherne said. “We are conducting a murder investigation, so we’re not going to confirm or acknowledge or release any further details about the incidents of that night at this time.”

Gabriella was a second-grader at Lockport Lower Elementary School. Social workers and children’s psychologists are on standby should any of her classmates need someone to speak to, Lafourche Parish School Board spokesman Floyd Benoit said.

Isabella used to tail the complex’s other children in the courtyard, where she rode her plastic, pink-wheeled bicycle, according to neighbors.

“(Isabella) was just learning to pronounce my name correctly,” Costin said.

Jackie Perez, of Cut Off, visited her sister and brother-in-law on Monday at the complex. She said she plans to help her sister move out of the complex and that she remembers seeing Gabrielle and Isabella playing in the yard.

“They can’t believe it,” Perez said of the residents. “It’s heartbreaking. I mean, how are you supposed to feel? … How can someone take the life of that woman and her innocent kids? Those babies didn’t do anything.”

Neighbors and friends gathered in the courtyard Monday evening, where they lit candles and placed them at the Nieves’ door. Where police tape hung hours before, the group held hands, prayed for justice and remembered the children. After a few minutes of this, Costin appeared to faint, and emergency responders were called to the scene.

Earlier that day, Costin, 34, said he met Carlos Nieves while working at Bollinger Shipyards four years ago. The neighbor said he was happy when his friend moved into the neighborhood four months ago, that his door has always been unlocked and open to Carlos Nieves, who ate Costin’s leftover barbecue after returning from a bar hours before the fire was allegedly ignited.

After reporting the presence of smoke in his house to authorities, Carlos Nieves, wearing blue jeans and no shirt, immediately turned to Costin, waking him from a slumber with a series of bangs on the door.

“He said there was lots of smoke in his house and he needed to get his wife and kids out,” the neighbor said. “He told me that all three were upstairs in one of the bedrooms.

“I grabbed my pajamas and flashlight and tried to get up the stairs, but the smoke was too bad. He had already called 911 and, after I couldn’t get upstairs, that’s when the firemen showed up.”

Costin said it wasn’t uncommon for Jacqueline and her two daughters to sleep in one bedroom, a room that he wired with his cable service so the girls could watch cartoons.

Costin said he was “very close” to the family. He often drank coffee with Jacqueline Nieves after returning from his night shift, and he took out a cash-advance loan to help the family pay its rent a few months ago.

The family’s financial troubles strained Jacqueline and Carlos’ relationship, Costin said, but he said he didn’t believe his friend could murder his wife and children. Carlos Nieves had never given any indication that he would do so, even in passing, Costin said.

Leroy Hebert, who has lived in the same building as the Nieves family since August, also said he didn’t believe Carlos Nieves killed his wife and children.

The last reported triple homicide in Lafourche Parish was in May 2008 when three men were murdered with an AK-47 on the 600 block of St. Louis Street in Raceland.

Another victim was shot in the leg during that attack, but survived.

Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig Webre said at the time it was the only triple homicide that he could recall in Lafourche Parish.

David Brown