Odomes gets life sentence as habitual offender

Derrick Odomes was sentenced as a habitual offender to life in prison without benefit of suspension or parole one week before he went on trial for second-degree murder for allegedly killing a Thibodaux priest 19 years ago.

Odomes, 33, of Houma, nervously wiped his face with his hands and with the sleeves of his prison jumpsuit several times last Tuesday afternoon as the prosecution methodically proved to the 17th Judicial District Court that he was the same man who has been convicted of six felony charges in his adulthood.

The state, led by Assistant District Attorney Kristine Russell, presented five witnesses who were able to prove “beyond any doubt” to District Judge John E. LeBlanc that the man who sat in orange garb at the defense table was the same man convicted of six felonies since 1996.

“He’s a sixth offender who I can only declare as a fourth offender who needs to be in custody for the rest of his natural life,” LeBlanc said as Odomes fidgeted in his seat next to his defense attorney, New Iberia-based Lynden Burton.

Louisiana’s habitual offender statute dictates a sentencing range from 20 years to natural life if a defendant is proven to have been convicted of four or more felonies. The statute does not issue a penalty range beyond four prior convictions.

Jury selection began yesterday in the 19-year-old murder case of Rev. Hunter Hudson Horgan III, who was found bludgeoned and stabbed to death in the St. John’s Episcopal Church rectory in 1992. Odomes is charged with second-degree murder in Horgan’s death.

Odomes, who was 14 at the time of the crime, would avoid prison time for the murder if convicted, according to LeBlanc’s ex post facto ruling in pre-trial proceedings. Louisiana law in 1992 did not allow for convicted minors to serve past their 21st birthday.

After the ruling, Russell deferred questions to Lafourche Parish District Attorney Cam Morvant II.

“The sentence is appropriate, and I agree with it,” he said. Morvant went on to compliment Russell for her work in attaining the conviction. “She spent numerous hours on this case, which was evident from the presentation and the result.”

The state filed the habitual offender bill after a 12-person jury found Odomes guilty of intimidating a witness, a felony, earlier this year.

Odomes, while incarcerated pending the results of the murder trial, allegedly exposed himself to Lafourche deputy Haley Burkett in 2009, the arrest report noted.

After Odomes learned of the pending obscenity charge, Burkett testified this year, he tried to speak with her about the charge.

Burkett rebuffed him, she told the court, and Odomes responded, “It ain’t going to stick. I am going to get out. I’ll get you, girl.”

Defense attorney Burton said he is still going through the process of appealing the intimidation conviction. “If we win that, [this sentence] will go away,” he said after the ruling was handed down, rationalizing the fact that the state used the charge as the basis for the bill.

In addition to the intimidation result, the state presented the following felony convictions to the court Tuesday afternoon: attempted simple escape, convicted in the 4th Judicial District in 1996; aggravated flight from an officer, convicted in the 17th Judicial District in 2000; unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, convicted in the 17th Judicial District in 2002; illegal possession of stolen things, convicted in the 32nd Judicial District in 2004; identity theft, convicted in the 32nd Judicial District in 2004; and intimidation, convicted in the 17th Judicial District earlier this year.

Habitual offender hearings are about proving the defendant in court is the same person who was convicted on the previous charges. The state’s burden of proof is through paperwork and technicalities, Russell said before the hearing.

The state used four witnesses to prove Odomes was convicted of the crimes. Two supervised Odomes while he was on parole for three of the remaining five convictions, a third witness testified to filing a fourth charge, and the fourth witness was able to link Odomes to the 1996 conviction through fingerprint analysis.

Each witness identified Odomes in court and provided the social security numbers, date of birth and other personal information they had in their respective criminal file on Odomes in proving the state’s case.

After the state was able to link Odomes to the six felony convictions, it called its final witness, who testified that Odomes had spent only two years as a free man, meaning not incarcerated or under any probationary or parole supervision, since his first arrest in 1995.

In contemplating Odomes’ sentence in the public forum, the presiding judge said he believed allowing Odomes to become a free man would present an “undue risk” and a “lesser sentence would depreciate the seriousness of the crime.”

Also last Tuesday, the state amended the murder charge against Odomes in the trial set for this week. Morvant, who will prosecute the case on behalf of the state, downgraded the charge from first-degree murder to murder in the second degree.

“The penalties and issues are still the same, but there will be less confusion for the jury,” Morvant said.

Odomes re-entered a plea of not guilty, and Burton said after the proceedings he believes “the facts that come out in court will show Mr. Odomes is not guilty.”