Concerts
January 18, 2007Louis Joseph DuBois
January 22, 2007
SHELL ARMSTRONG
Acting on a Crime Stoppers tip, a U.S. Marshals task force and Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s deputies arrested one of Texas’ top 10 fugitives at his job site in Larose.
Darrell Wayne Parker, 46, was arrested Thursday morning at a sandblasting company off of La. 24 in Larose where he had been working the last two weeks, ending his nearly two-year run from the Texas Department of Safety, said Deputy U.S. Marshal Brian Fair.
Parker’s past criminal history included several resisting arrest charges. He was also said to be armed and dangerous, according to Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office spokesman Larry Weidel. However, the Texas man surrendered peacefully Thursday.
Parker was wanted on a parole warrant issued in February 2005 for voluntary manslaughter and a November 2006 warrant charging him with aggravated sexual assault of a child, Fair said.
Authorities at the U.S. Marshals office in Beaumont, Texas, were first alerted through a Crime Stoppers tip that Parker was living in Larose, Fair said.
The U.S. Marshals Crescent Star Fugitive Task Force (CSFTF) and the Lafourche Sheriff’s Crisis Management Unit found Parker residing in a small travel trailer at the job site. Fair said investigators believe that he had been living in the area for about one month prior to his arrest Thursday.
The parole warrant for voluntary manslaughter, issued by the Texas Department of Safety, stems from the March 21, 1991, killing of a 26-year-old Port Arthur woman. Parker beat the woman to death with his fists, Fair said.
The second warrant, for sexual assault, was issued in November after authorities learned Parker had molested an 11-year-old boy who lived at the same Beaumont apartment complex where he lived, the spokesman said.
Parker is being held at the Lafourche Parish Detention Center pending extradition to Texas, Fair said. He noted both the Texas Department of Safety and Beaumont authorities have been notified of Parker’s arrest.
Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office spokesman Larry Weidel said Friday that Parker was not facing charges in Louisiana.
“This guy’s been on the lam and it just caught up with him,” Weidel said.
In the months since Hurricane Katrina pummeled the Gulf Coast, Fair said the U.S. Marshal’s Office has seen a steady increase in the number of fugitives from outside of Louisiana hiding out in the state.
“We’ve heard stories about evacuees from this area causing problems n shooting this person or that person n whether it be in Houston, Dallas, Atlanta or wherever,” said Fair, who is assigned to the U.S. Marshals office in New Orleans. “But there’s also been a lot of offenders coming down here.”
In the last year, Fair said the New Orleans office has arrested two fugitives featured on “America’s Most Wanted” and a third that was scheduled to be featured the following week. Two were wanted sex offenders and the third was wanted for beating his wife to death, he said.
“Everybody talks about how Louisiana exported all of this crime, but there’s also been a large influx into Louisiana of fugitives,” Fair said. “There are people from outside of the state coming down here to do work and to hide out from the warrants they have in other states.”
Fair praised the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office for helping end Parker’s run from the law.
“We couldn’t have [made the arrest] without them. All of our state and local agencies, we rely on their support. That’s how we do what we do everyday,” he said. “Who else knows Lafourche Parish better than the Lafourche sheriff’s office? They were able to help us and supply a tactical team to make this go down safe.”
Weidel said the sheriff’s office has one deputy assigned on an as-needed basis to the CSFTF. “We work closely with these guys, as we do with other law enforcement agencies, to get these guys, particularly those that cross the state lines,” he said.
