Local teenager was a true hero, always fought the good fight
January 11, 2012Louisiana Art and Science Museum (Baton Rouge)
January 16, 2012
Editor’s note: This story contains sensitive language and may offend readers.
By ERIC BESSON
Pistol shots echoed through the darkness as seven Thibodaux teenagers tried to drive away, and the six who lived to tell about it are in jail in lieu of six-figure bond amounts, charged with the “gang-related activity” attributed to the death of 15-year-old Jamonta Miles.
As of Monday, the alleged shooter was at large. Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig Webre said through a spokesman that detectives would “spare no expense” in finding the black Raceland male, approximately 5 feet, 5 inches tall, who opened fire just before 11:30 p.m. last Monday night on Market Street.
Miles was seated in the cargo area of a tan 1999 GMC Yukon as the gunman peppered the fleeing vehicle with four shots. Another passenger in the cargo area was struck in the elbow and treated at Thibodaux Regional Medical Center.
Deputies say the shooter opened fire after he was threatened by the group of teenagers, who revealed to investigators they are members of a Thibodaux gang called “Young Niggas In Charge. “
The seven young men went to Raceland to search for an unidentified person in response to an argument waged through the social media website Facebook.com, the details of which are “unclear,” according to LPSO spokesman Brennan Matherne. After the teenagers could not find the person, they began “terrorizing” random pedestrians in the Greenville area of Raceland, Matherne said
Prior to approaching the shooter, the teenagers, one of whom threatening to use a padlock as a makeshift brass knuckle, had intimidated at least two other people, who ran away instead of escalating the conflict, Matherne said. At one point, a baseball hat was stolen from one of the terrorized victims.
The padlock was the only weapon found in the groups, according to Matherne. Detectives would later discover the hat and a half a gallon of Seagram’s Gin.
The group was conducting what Matherne referred to as “jump outs.” The teenagers would allegedly exit the Yukon, approach a pedestrian on foot and use their advantage in numbers to intimidate victims.
When the group approached the soon-to-be shooter, it initiated conversation by inquiring about the availability of marijuana. An argument ensued after the Raceland man told the teenagers he did not conduct business with people from Thibodaux, Matherne said.
As the argument grew tense, the man allegedly pulled out his gun and started firing. The Thibodaux teenagers scurried to the vehicle and began to drive away.
One bullet smashed through the rear passenger-side window of the SUV. Another shattered the rear brake light above the window, and two more dotted the rear cargo doors, according to Matherne.
Captured memories are framed throughout the two-toned Miles home in Solar’s Mobile Home Park in Thibodaux.
Atop the entertainment center, there’s a picture behind cracked glass of Jamonta in his Bantam football uniform, down on one knee with two fingers on a gold helmet and a cocksure smile on his face.
To the left of it, in a picture hanging on the wall, Jamonta rests his right hand on his seated mother’s left shoulder and stands taller than everyone but his father in the early 1900s-themed family portrait of the parents and his two younger sisters.
Even farther to the left is an even younger Jamonta clutching a diploma in two hands and shamelessly beaming despite missing an upper incisor for his W.S. Lafargue Elementary graduation photo shoot.
“Even when he was mad he smiled,” Amanda Miles, Jamonta’s mother, said. “He could be hollering, but he was smiling.”
Isis Smith, Jamonta’s aunt, immediately agreed. “He stayed smiling.”
An eighth-grader at West Thibodaux Middle School, Jamonta could often be found at the family’s computer. Whether he was listening to music or thumbing through web pages while chatting with his friends on the phone, Miles was constantly in contact on some way with the outside world. “He had a lot of friends,” his mother said.
Jamonta was born in March of 1996 from a 15-year-old mother. Nine months later, his sister was born one month premature. The two shared a room in the singlewide trailer and a young family had to learn to grow up together.
“It was interesting and fun growing up together and teaching him the right things,” his mother said.
Jamonta often stirred up the sweet smell of baked cookies for everyone to enjoy, family members said.
“He was really lovable,” Amanda Miles said. “He loved everybody. He was a very outspoken person. We’re going to still love him like he’s here, but he’s with God. We’ll get through it. We have to pray, and God will help us through it.”
Ijah Baptiste, 17, the other passenger in the SUV’s cargo area, was treated at Thibodaux Regional Medical Center for a gunshot wound to his elbow. Baptiste was among the six surviving teenagers in the SUV who were arrested last Tuesday for “what detectives say was gang-related activity that led to Miles’s death,” an LPSO release says.
Along with Baptiste, 101 Anthony Drive, the five other teenagers who were arrested are Damian Dyer, 18, 2108 S. Barbier Drive; Jeremy Carcisse, 18, and Donovon McPherson, 17, both of 2055 St. Mary Street; Devonte Robertson, 17, 1226 Park Drive; and Damien Wagner, 18, 1274 St. Charles St.
“It’s unclear whether Miles was, but we know for sure that the six of them were outside of the vehicle (when the alleged gunman was approached),” Matherne said.
Each was charged with involvement in criminal street gangs and patterns of criminal gang activity; terrorizing; contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile; and possession of alcoholic beverages of persons under 21.
McPherson was charged with illegal carrying of a weapon, a felony, because he allegedly treated the padlock as a weapon, Matherne said. Carcisse was charged with misdemeanor theft of a baseball cap.
The suspects are being held at the Lafourche Parish Detention Center.
Judge Ashly Bruce Simpson set bond for each suspect on Wednesday. The amounts range from $111,000 to $142,000, Matherne said.
Louisiana R.S. 15:1403 defines criminal gang participation as “Any person who intentionally directs, participates, conducts, furthers, or assists in the commission of a pattern of criminal gang activity…”
Prison sentences can be no less than one year and no more than one-half of the maximum term of imprisonment for any “underlying offense” related to the gang activity. The maximum fine is $10,000.
Terrorizing, as defined by state law, is the “intentional communication of information that the commission of a crime of violence is imminent or in progress or that a circumstance dangerous to a human life exists or is about to exist…”
The maximum fine is $15,000 and the maximum prison sentence is 15 years, according to the R.S. 14:40.1.
At 9:12 p.m., a message was posted to Carcisse’s Facebook page that warned of a trip to Raceland. “Going ride t Raceland y’all better be in the house cause the party bus get down,” it reads (sic).
LPSO refused to confirm Facebook accounts.
Criminal gang-related activity is rare, authorities said, but the group the teenagers claim loyalty to has been on the police radar for a few months as it pertains to troublesome behavior at school.
The administration at Thibodaux High, which five of the six teenagers who were arrested attended at some point, reached out to the Thibodaux Police Department in October with regard to Y.N.I.C.
Some students who labeled themselves as Y.N.I.C. had been fighting and bullying students from other areas of the city, TPD Chief of Police Scott Silverii said, although he could not confirm whether the arrested teenagers were among those approached late last year. The students were warned “that their behavior was no longer to be tolerated,” he said.
True gang-related activity, as defined by Louisiana law, is “absolutely rare,” in Thibodaux, Silverii said.
“A geographical gathering of guys just because they live down the street from one another doesn’t necessarily constitute a criminal gang activity,” the police chief said. “When we identified (Y.N.I.C.), it was more of a loose association based on geography as compared to some criminal ideology, because they all happen to be from that Midland area.”
Lafourche Parish Public Schools, acting on recommendations from the sheriff’s office, imported extra metal detectors and handheld wands, closed some entrances and stationed extra deputies at Thibodaux and Central Lafourche high schools, public schools spokesman Floyd Benoit said.
Benoit said the initiatives were taken to “be extra protective and keep it safe for our students and make everyone there feel safe.”
There is a history of violence between Central Lafourche and Thibodaux high schools, mostly during and following sporting events. There has been a case of students chucking rocks at visiting buses, name calling in the stands and post-game fights at McDonald’s and Burger King, Benoit said.
“Nothing over worrisome, but there has been some incidents of different things at different games and sporting events over the years, and it is more heated in those two areas than in other places,” the public schools’ spokesman said.
On Monday, Benoit said the extra metal detectors had been removed. He said no weapons or drugs were found and no violence attributable to last week’s shooting occurred.
Still, faculty members and deputies are monitoring conversation and entry into the buildings at the two high schools.
“At both schools, it was real solemn,” said Benoit, who was at both schools during class changes and lunchtime at times last week. “I think it might have had a little effect on them.”
LPSO increased patrols in the Thibodaux and Raceland areas, which is “standard procedure,” Matherne said. The sheriff’s spokesman said the measures taken at the schools were done so in “an abundance of caution,” and retaliation is not expected.
“We have no reason to believe any of this would “spill” over into the schools, and our increased presence would ensure that if any issues DID arise, we would have multiple officers on scene already,” Matherne said in an email.
The sheriff’s office also enlisted the help of the Thibodaux Police Department. Silverii said TPD has not increased already-plentiful patrols, but officers who are familiar with the Midland area are keeping an eye out for troublesome behavior.
In addition to that, the two agencies are monitoring social media outlets and sharing information amongst one another.
“After this situation, it’s more of an investigative intelligence function,” Silverii said. “It’s never that we’re absent of patrol, so I guess the stepped-up side came from the intelligence and information gathering side.”
