Driver repeat offender (3/12)

Posted March 11, 2010 at 11:37 pm
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By VINCENT LUPO
AMERICAN PRESS

The case involving a pickup truck driver who reportedly caused a double-fatality accident Wednesday near Vinton is an example of why stiffer drunken-driving penalties are needed, District Attorney John DeRosier said Thursday.

According to court records, Raymond Armentor, 47, of Sulphur, was convicted Sept. 3, 2003, on three counts of third-offense DWI.

DeRosier said Armentor was still on probation for those convictions when he crossed the center line Wednesday and collided head-on with a van. Both the driver of the van, Brian Holland, 45, of Sulphur, and the passenger, Rebecca Pago Leboeuf, 47, of Sulphur, were killed.

DeRosier’s proposed legislation for stiffer mandatory minimum sentences in third-offense or higher DWI cases will be pushed by Gov. Bobby Jindal when the legislative session begins March 29.

DeRosier said that before 2000, the Legislature believed in punishing DWI offenders. But that mindset began to change in 2000 when legislators started emphasizing treatment, he said.

The DWI laws were amended to restrict judges to certain minimum short-term sentences in third-offense or higher DWIs with mandatory substance abuse treatment during probation.

Defendants who haven’t obtained treatment can’t be sentenced to lengthy terms due to the way the laws are written, DeRosier said.

Armentor is a case in point, he said. When Armentor pleaded guilty to three counts of third-offense DWI he was sentenced to a total of 12 years in prison.

But Judge Mike Canaday was forced to suspend all except 120 days of that sentence and place Armentor on probation with numerous special conditions, including four to six weeks’ in-patient substance abuse treatment and a year of after-care.

DeRosier said Armentor, at the time of those convictions, was serving probation for a prior felony. That probation was revoked due to the DWIs, and Armentor was ordered to serve the rest of a suspended prison term.

DeRosier said Armentor remained in prison until 2006 when his probation on the DWI offenses began. That probation doesn’t end until 2011, he said.

DeRosier said the probation and parole office will now cite Armentor for violating that probation by committing offenses — vehicular homicide (two counts) and DWI. Results of toxicology tests on Armentor haven’t been completed, however, DeRosier said.

According to the formal charge from Armentor’s Sept. 3, 2003, guilty plea, the defendant was stopped for DWI three times within a seven-month period — Feb. 22, Aug. 22 and Oct. 27, 2001.

During each of those times he was considered a third DWI offender because, on March 30, 1992, in Sulphur City Court, he pleaded guilty to two counts of first-offense DWI.

None of the cases stemming from the 2001 DWI stops was completed by the time he was stopped again, so each DWI was considered a third offense, DeRosier said.

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LC man charged in two shootings (3/12)

Posted March 11, 2010 at 11:37 pm
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By VANESSA C. DEGGINS
AMERICAN PRESS

Lake Charles Police Chief Don Dixon on Thursday announced the arrest of a Lake Charles man who allegedly committed two separate shootings during robberies.

Dasmond Jamal Simmons, 20, was arrested Wednesday at a Broad Street hotel and charged with two counts of attempted second-degree murder and one count each of attempted armed robbery and armed robbery. His bond was set at more than $1 million.

The shootings happened two days apart — March 4 and 6 — and one man was left paralyzed, Dixon said.

On the night of the first shooting, Dixon said, officers responded to a 911 call about a person who had been shot and was driving himself to the hospital.

“The victim had been shot five times near the 1500 block of Merganser Street,” Dixon said. “He told investigators that a shoot-out took place after someone attempted to rob him of drugs and money.”

Dixon said that at the time police had no suspect.

Two days later, a man was shot in the 2300 block of See Street.

“He told detectives that he rode with Simmons to the location and Simmons shot him in the back,” Dixon said.

He said the man is paralyzed from the waist down. “He is still being treated, but right now doctors say the prognosis isn’t good,” Dixon said.

He said Simmons claimed to have sold the gun on the street, and Dixon asked for the public’s help in recovering the weapon.

“If anyone purchased the gun or was asked to hide it for (Simmons), you can turn it in, no questions asked,” Dixon said. “We need to compare the weapon to shells at the scenes.”

Anyone with information on the gun’s location can call Detective Frank Fondel at 491-1311.

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Cowboys open conference play (3/12)

Posted March 11, 2010 at 11:34 pm
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By ALEX HICKEY
AMERICAN PRESS

When conference play starts, the ante is always upped.

“Every game is 10 times more important,” said McNeese State right fielder Lee Orr. “The games we’ve played so far, I don’t want to say they don’t matter, but they don’t matter as much. They’re not the ones that are going to get us where we want to go. We have to win these conference games to make sure we get into the tournament and get a chance at reaching a regional.”

The Cowboys start their Southland Conference journey today, and they’ll be doing so against an opponent that couldn’t be any hotter coming in. Northwestern State, winners of nine straight, will host McNeese in a three-game series that begins at 6:30 p.m. at Brown-Stroud Field in Natchitoches.

Both teams have the ability to bring scoreboard operators to the brink of arthritis, entering the series with identical .306 team batting averages.

The twin batting averages may be a precursor to a conference race where not much separates any of the teams involved.

“Everybody’s playing good right now. Our whole conference has some good wins under their belt,” Matt Fontenot said. “It’s going to be a well-rounded conference. It’s going to be a dogfight to the end, I think.”

Fontenot has been trying to get his own hitting up to snuff after struggling early in the season. The senior, who is hitting .147, spent Thursday afternoon in the batting cage.

“It’s kind of a confidence thing. Once you have a couple bad at-bats, it kind of builds on each other,” Fontenot said. “One of the things coach said is this is a game of failure and you have to put it behind you. I’m just getting my head back on straight and my confidence going into the weekend.”

McNeese will start Dustin Lloyd (0-2, 1.88 ERA) against Demons right-hander Luke Irvine (1-0, 3.78) in the series opener. Jonathan Conrad (2-1, 3.86) is set to face Heath Hennigan (0-0, 5.27) on Saturday, while Sunday’s Cowboy starter is yet to be determined.

“We’ll see how things (go) in the first two games and then name a starter for Sunday,” said McNeese coach Terry Burrows.

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Crashes kill 3; troopers suspect one driver was impaired (3/11)

Posted March 10, 2010 at 11:19 pm
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Three people died on Southwest Louisiana roads in early-morning accidents on Wednesday, according to state police.

Two people were killed at 7:50 a.m. just east of Vinton, said Sgt. James Anderson.

Raymond Armentor, 47, of Sulphur was traveling west on U.S. 90 in a pickup truck when he crossed the center line and collided head-on with the van driven by Brian Holland, 45, also of Sulphur.

Anderson said Holland and a passenger in the pickup, Rebecca Pago Leboeuf, 47, of Sulphur were pronounced dead at the scene of the accident.

Armentor’s injuries were described as moderate, and he was taken to a local hospital.

Anderson said troopers believe Armentor was impaired and that toxicology tests are pending. He has been charged with two counts of vehicular homicide, second-offense DWI and driving left of center.

Armentor and Leboeuf were wearing seatbelts; Holland wasn’t.

In a separate accident, Shasta Ann Fuselier, 31, of Eunice died in a single-vehicle accident just north of Jennings, police said.

She was traveling north on La. 102 near Grand Marais Road at about 2 a.m. when her 2005 GMC Yukon left the road, struck a utility pole and rolled over, state police said.

Fuselier, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was ejected during the roll-over.

She was pronounced dead at Jennings American Legion Hospital.

Routine toxicology results are pending.

•

American Press staff writers Vanessa Deggins and Doris Maricle contributed to this report.

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Local nurses encounter horrors, hope in Haiti (3/11)

Posted March 10, 2010 at 11:19 pm
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By HEATHER REGAN WHITE
AMERICAN PRESS

SULPHUR — The people of Haiti are in wretched straits and desperately need our help, according to one of seven Christus St. Patrick Hospital nurses who spent eight days in the island nation providing care and supplies to those injured in the January earthquake.

Melanie Gentry and two other operating room nurses told the Sulphur Kiwanis Club on Wednesday about their trip last month as part of a 20-member team.

Karen Carr and Molly Hagen also shared their experiences assisting in some of the 85 surgeries performed by a team that included Christus Health CEO Tom Royer. The team partnered with the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine at one of several operating stations in Haiti manned by medical professionals from around the world.

The three nurses traveled with six doctors, four anesthesiologists, two spiritual advisers, a nurse practitioner, four other nurses and 3,000 pounds of supplies on a Boeing 737 aircraft secured by U.S. Rep. Rodney Alexander, who represents the state’s 5th Congressional District.

“It was definitely worth it, and in some ways we gained more than we gave, we felt,” Carr said.

The magnitude-7 quake, which struck on Jan. 12, reportedly killed 200,000, injured 194,000, left 1 million homeless and forced 800,000 people into camps.

Seventy percent of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, was leveled, as were 90 percent of the towns near the epicenter.

Gentry said Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, suffered three hurricanes last year from which the island has still not recovered.

“And monsoon season starts this month, and hurricane season starts in June,” she said.

“These are beautiful people,” Gentry said. “They smile all the time though they have nothing and expect nothing. They are so grateful.”

“I think we’ve prepared all our lives for this one thing,” Hagen said.

She said the Miller site comprised four tents.

“There were 140 cots in this big circus tent,” she said. “We were one big happy, coed family.”

One tent held 125 patients, one served as a pediatric unit, one as a pharmacy, and the fourth held supplies.

“There were chillers hooked up to generators in the tents. It was 95-100 degrees outside and got pretty hot inside the tents during the day,” Hagen said.

The nurses said they spent about 13 hours a day in the makeshift operating room, often having to point flashlights into incisions so doctors could see.

Many infants were born too early as a result of stress, they said.

“When we had babies born everyone came because it was the one time we could smile,’’ Gentry said.

She said the team found a new way to keep a premature baby warm. They made an incubator out of a suitcase, wrapped the baby in a blanket, then an adult-size Therma Care wrap and then another blanket.

Gentry said that, for the most part, no one had just one wound. “There would be an amputated limb on one side and a broken bone on the other, along with some burns,” she said.

“It was crazy the things we had and didn’t have,” Hagen said. “We had no spotlights, but we had an advanced anesthesia machine. There was lots of technical equipment but not enough sponges.”

Gentry said the ratio of doctors to nurses was 4-to-1.

“Thank God family members were there to turn the patients and feed them. The nurses (taking care of the 125 patients) looked haunted,” she said.

Gentry said more nurses are desperately needed in Haiti.

•

For more on the trip, visit www.wiresidechatwithdrtom.blogspot.com.

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