Not guilty plea in death of 10-year-old
<p class="p1">A man charged with first-degree murder in the shooting of a 10-year-old boy in 2017 was arraigned and pleaded not guilty Tuesday in state district court.
<p class="p1">Felton Felmon Thompson, 50, has been indicted on a charge of first-degree murder in the death of Jaylyn Citizen, who was killed during a home invasion and attempted robbery Sept. 24, 2017, on Shattuck Street, authorities said.
<p class="p1">Family members of Jaylyn, wearing T-shirts that displayed photos of him on the front, filled a row in the courtroom, and cried softly as Thompson entered his plea.
<p class="p1">Prosecutor Loren Lampert told Judge Clayton Davis that the Calcasieu Parish District Attorney’s Office plans to seek the death penalty.
<p class="p1">Dwight M. Doskey, an attorney with the Capital Defense Project of Southeast Louisiana, represented Thompson in court on Tuesday.
<p class="p1">Thompson was paroled early from Angola State Penitentiary after serving 24 years of a 99-year prison sentence for armed robbery and other crimes and at the time of his arrest authorities said he was from the Kenner area and that they did not know why he was in Lake Charles.
<p class="p1">During a news conference to announce his arrest in 2017, which took place at a hotel near the Superdome in New Orleans, authorities called Thompson a “career criminal.”
<p class="p1">A trial date has not been set for Thompson, although a pre-trial hearing is scheduled for September.
<p class="p1">He remains jailed in the Calcasieu Correctional Center on $330,000 bond.