Feds death penalty against 3 defendants charged in 2013 slaying of Loomis security officer
New Orleans LA Sept 2 2018
Federal prosecutors in New Orleans will seek the death penalty against three of the six defendants charged in a 2013 robbery that left a Loomis armored truck guard dead outside a Carrollton bank, according to court documents filed Friday.
The decision to seek execution for Chukwudi Ofomata, Lilbear George and Curtis Johnson Jr. required approval from U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who along with President Donald Trump has pledged to pursue the death penalty in more cases than the Obama-era Justice Department did.
There are a number of reasons why the government wants the death penalty for Ofomata, George and Johnson, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael McMahon and Brittany Reed explained in court memos.
Ofomata is singled out as the man who fatally shot guard Hector Trochez. The federal prosecutors also noted that state authorities have separately charged him in the 2008 slayings of Jarnell Sanders and Candice Gillard in a 7th Ward store.
Meanwhile, the filings state, George has demonstrated no remorse following Trochez’s murder, saying he wished he had killed a specific, unidentified person and then planted his gun on that person to throw authorities’ attention away from himself.
George also is accused of participating in another armored car robbery in December 2007, outside a Capital One Bank branch less than a mile from where Trochez was slain. Robbers exchanged gunfire with a guard in that holdup, but no one was killed, and charges were not filed before the statute of limitations lapsed.
Additionally, George is fighting charges of illegal gun possession and conspiracy to deal heroin in a separate case, prosecutors said in Friday’s filings.
All three men also are accused of willingly playing a part in a violent, well-planned robbery that left Trochez’s family devastated, although no other crimes are cited in the document relating to Johnson.
Federal prosecutors have won several death sentences in recent years, but those punishments are rarely carried out. The most recent federal execution was in 2003.
Nearly four years after Loomis armored truck driver Hector Trochez was fatally shot during an elaborately planned holdup outside a Carrollton-…
According to a review of online records, the last time that federal prosecutors in New Orleans received authorization to seek the death penalty may have been in 2005.
That is when prosecutors pursued the death penalty against three men charged with killing Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office Deputy Sidney Zaffuto during a bank robbery in Algiers in 2004.
One of those defendants ended up being sentenced to death. But U.S. District Judge Helen “Ginger” Berrigan ordered a new sentencing for him, citing various errors. He later received a life sentence.
Berrigan ruled another defendant ineligible for execution because of a low IQ, and the third died in jail.
Since then, federal prosecutors have opted against seeking execution for some of the city’s most notorious criminals, including Central City drug kingpin Telly Hankton as well as members of the violent 39’ers street gang.
Trochez, a Kenner resident, was gunned down in early afternoon one week before Christmas outside a Chase Bank at South Carrollton and South Claiborne avenues.
A group of people in masks fired pistols and a rifle at Trochez while he delivered money to the bank’s drive-through automated teller machines. Trochez drew his .40-caliber service pistol and fired back, but the 45-year-old native of Honduras was shot once in the head and died.
The robbers took a bag containing roughly $265,000 and fled in a stolen Chevrolet Tahoe.
An unidentified witness followed the Tahoe to a home in the 1700 block of Adams Street, about 10 blocks away. The robbers ditched the Tahoe, piled into another car and fled. Investigators soon recovered the abandoned Tahoe.
With a few months, the names of two suspects, George and Jasmine Theophile, became public.
An April 2014 federal court filing said that George’s DNA was detected on a screwdriver found in the Tahoe. The document also accused George of fleeing Louisiana with a group of men, driving another car belonging to Theophile.
Then, in November 2017, the feds unfurled charges in Trochez’s death against George, Theophile, Ofomata, Johnson, Jeremy Esteves and Robert Brumfield III.
A 30-year-old 7th Ward man implicated earlier this year in a 2008 double murder is also strongly suspected of having participated in the 2013 …
Prosecutors either didn’t seek or didn’t receive approval to pursue execution for Theophile, Brumfield and Esteves. Theophile is accused of obstruction of justice and Brumfield of being the getaway driver.
All of the defendants except Brumfield had been arrested when the indictment in the case was unsealed, and they have pleaded not guilty. Brumfield apparently remains at large.
Trochez’s family has kept a low profile in the years since his slaying. However, when news broke about the indictment, a Facebook page titled “In Loving Memory of Hector Trochez” posted a two-word message in reaction: “Death penalty!!!”
Attempts Friday to contact attorneys for George, Ofomata and Johnson were unsuccessful.
A jury trial is tentatively set for Oct. 9 in front of U.S. District Judge Lance Africk.
In a separate but similar case, Loomis guard Jimmy McBride was fatally shot during a botched robbery outside a Mid-City bank on May 31, 2017.
Prosecutors had the option to pursue the death penalty against three men charged in that case. An attorney for one of the defendants has said the government indicated it won’t pursue that option. But a notice saying as much hasn’t been entered into court records.
The Advocate
