Furniture, appliance store prides itself on service
January 22, 2013
Hike for KaTREEna Big TREEsy gives free trees
January 25, 2013
A Houma man has been charged with murdering a mother and her two children at their Lockport apartment last year and raping two of the victims, Lafourche Sheriff Craig Webre said Wednesday morning during a press conference.
David Brown, 34, is considered the lone suspect and will appear before a grand jury on Jan. 30, Webre said. He is charged with three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated rape, one count of aggravated arson and one count of attempted first-degree murder.
Brown is being held at the Lafourche Parish Detention Center in lieu of a $3.3 million bond. Although the charges were announced Wednesday, Brown had been incarcerated on unrelated charges stemming from the same day since Nov. 4.
Shortly after 5 a.m. on that day, first responders found 29-year-old Jacqueline Nieves and her two daughters, 7-year-old Gabriela Nieves and 20-month old Izabela Nieves, dead with stab wounds in their smoldering Lockport duplex. All had been stabbed at least one time, deputies said.
The autopsy report indicated that two of the victims may have been raped, Webre said.
Deputies said the fire was sparked to cover up the triple homicide.
Jacqueline’s husband and the girls’ father Carlos Nieves Jr., who was asleep on the couch when Brown allegedly murdered his family and sparked the fire, called emergency officials to report smoke coming from his apartment’s second story.
Webre said the sheriff’s office based the charges on physical, testimonial, forensic and video evidence. Brown’s DNA matches DNA evidence collected at the crime scene, the sheriff said. The knife Brown allegedly used was recovered at the scene.
The attempted first-degree murder charge was levied because Carlos Nieves was in the apartment when the fire was set.
Brown has not confessed to the crime, Webre said.
“This is one of the most horrific crimes in the history of Lafourche Parish,” Webre said. “Three beautiful people – a loving mother and two wonderful children – were killed while they slept in the privacy of their own home by a violent criminal monster.”
Brown was working as a welder and boarding at Bollinger Shipyards, according Constantine Costin, a former resident of the complex who claimed to be Brown’s coworker.
“There was no formal relationship between the victims and Mr. Brown,” said Webre, who added that Brown was invited to the complex by a coworker who lived in the neighborhood.
Neighbors said Brown was there on Nov. 3 attending a football game watch party. Late that evening, Brown, Carlos Nieves and a third person went out drinking at local bars, neighbors said.
Brown returned to the complex between 1:30 and 2 a.m., Nov. 4, Webre said. He then allegedly entered the apartment adjacent to the Nieves and touched a sleeping woman. The woman awoke and, cursing, told Brown to leave, according to her husband Leroy Hebert.
The suspect left the complex before returning at roughly 4 a.m., which is when deputies believe he entered the Nieves’ dwelling and murdered three-quarters of the family, Webre said.
Brown has been arrested 29 times, according to the sheriff’s office, for a range of violent and nonviolent crimes since he turned 17 years old in 1994.
He pleaded to the lesser charge of aggravated battery after being charged with attempted second-degree murder in 1996, court records show. He has been incarcerated, out on parole or on probation since that plea in 1997.
Most recently, Brown’s probation was revoked in October 2011 after a theft charge. He was imprisoned until Feb. 2, 2012, when he was cleared for the Terrebonne Parish Work Release Program. He was released from that program and placed on probation on Oct. 26, nine days before the murders.
Brown was arrested Nov. 4, the day of the triple homicide, after he acknowledged entering the neighbors’ apartment. He was charged with unlawfully entering an inhabited dwelling and simple battery. He later pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Because Brown was on probation, he could not meet bail obligations after that arrest. The sheriff’s office took its time in administering the formal charges, waiting on full autopsy reports and forensic evidence to be cleared.
If convicted of the charges filed against him Wednesday, Brown would face a mandatory sentence of life in prison, though “our expectation is (his life sentence) will be shortened by lethal injection,” Webre said.
Carlos Nieves had been laid off from his job as a pipefitter earlier last year, and Jacqueline was working at Walmart at the time of the crime, neighbors said.
Gabriela Nieves was a second-grader at Lockport Lower Elementary School, and she dressed up as Super Woman for Halloween. Her aunt Lacie Gautreaux said she liked to joke with family members, and her teacher Amber Champagne said “she was loved by all her peers.”
Izabela frequently tailed the Longueville apartment complex’s children and frequently rode her miniature bicycle around the courtyard and exhibited a curious mind. “I remember the night we put Halloween decorations up, she came over here and was just staring at them,” neighbor Tammy Markley said. “She was a happy, happy, happy baby, always had a smile.”
Lockport Chief of Police Warren Vedros Sr. stood alongside Webre during the news conference. The Nieves murders were the first inside town limits in 50 years, the police chief said.
David Brown
Izabela, Carlos, Jacqueline and Gabriela Nieves are pictured in this photograph provided by a family member.
