Eighty-three-year-old Preston John LeBleu was murdered during a robbery Thursday at his Chateau du Lac apartment, local law
enforcement officials said Friday.
Police arrested fellow Chateau du Lac resident John J. Landry III, 38, early Friday and charged him with first-degree murder
and simple robbery, Don Dixon, Lake Charles police chief, said Friday during a news conference.
Three women, including Landry’s mother
and sister, were also arrested on charges of being accessories after the
fact to first-degree
murder, Dixon said.
His mother, Irma Jean Landry, 54, of
717 Kingsley St., is being held on a $250,000 bond; his sister, Sara
Landry Green, 35,
of 1907 8th Ave., is being held on a $650,000 bond; and LaJeanna
Marie Thomas, 30, of 335 S. Franklin St., is being held on
a $600,000 bond, according to a news release from police spokesman
Mark Kraus.
“We’ve been through this before on homicides,” Dixon said. “If you are a family member and you assist somebody who is involved
in a homicide, shame on you. The law is very specific about that.”
Landry was charged with first-degree murder because LeBleu was over 65 years old and the killing happened during a robbery,
Dixon said.
He is being held without bond, according to Kraus.
A Chateau du Lac employee checking in on LeBleu found him dead in his apartment Thursday morning, Dixon said.
Dixon called the crime scene in LeBleu’s apartment “horrific,” but would not give details about how the victim was killed.
Landry was arrested at Chateau du Lac in an “apartment other than his own,” Dixon said.
The seven-story, 198-unit Mill Street high rise was the site of a murder and attempted murder in 2009.
In the past year police have received more than 200 calls for service from the apartment building, including false alarms,
thefts, fights and suicide attempts, according to records provided by the Lake Charles Police Department at the
“Anytime that you have that many people living in one building, anytime you have a crime, obviously there’s some concern,”
Dixon said. “If I was a resident there, they do have security cameras, they do have security. I saw the paper today where
some people expressed concern, some people didn’t. All I can tell you is that we solved both homicides there.”