AG Jeff Landry crusades for library cards for kids while almost allowing a triple murderer to walk out of prison
AG Jeff Landry crusades for library cards for kids while almost allowing a triple murderer to walk out of prison
February 12, 2023 by tomaswell
While Attorney General Jeff Landry was simultaneously running for governor and peeking over the shoulders of children as they checked out library books, his office damn near let a man convicted of a triple killing in Lake Charles go free.
Landry, who also involved himself deeply in the stolen election conspiracy pushed by supporters of Donald Trump, apparently was too busy with his anti-abortion, anti-First Amendment, library book monitoring campaign for governor to dispatch anyone to the parole hearing for Thomas Frank Cisco, 54.
The 1997 murders of Stacie Reeves, 26, Marty LeBouef, 21, and Nicole Guidry, 14, went unsolved for more than a year before Cisco was arrested. He was tried and sentenced to death but his conviction was overturned by the Louisiana Supreme Court because of a conflict of interest in the DA’s office and the prosecution was taken over by the attorney general’s office, then headed by Buddy Caldwell.
As a result, Cisco, who just 13 years ago, was sentenced to 90 years following a plea bargain negotiated by Caldwell’s office, was granted parole earlier this month but only the alert actions of the Calcasieu Parish District Attorney’s office managed to thwart his early release.
All of which brings up another question. When Cisco was sentenced in March 2010, Assistant Attorney General David Caldwell, the son of Buddy Caldwell, assured the media and the families of the three victims of the brutal slaying at a Lake Charles convenience store that Cisco “will die in Angola.” Prosecutors said at the time that Cisco would not become eligible for release from prison until he was 104 years old.
So, how is it that he was eligible for parole after only 13 years? What happened to spending the rest of his life in the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola?
Regardless, Landry flirted with malfeasance by not having a representative at Cisco’s parole hearing. Because of that neglect of duty, a convicted (actually an admitted killer, since he’d pled guilty) was only hours from walking out of prison a free man.
Only the actions of District Attorney Stephen Dwight prevented a major fiasco.
Following the parole board’s approval but before Cisco’s release, Dwight requested a review of all disciplinary records for Cisco – a routine request you’d think a second-year law student would know to make – and learned that Cisco had not told the parole board about an infraction involving contraband to which he had pled guilty.
Because the infraction occurred prior to the time of the parole hearing, it immediately negated his eligibility for parole and the board’s approval was rescinded.
“The Attorney General in 2010 is the one that actually pled him to the manslaughter,” Dwight said. “The DA’s office originally convicted him with first degree murder, and he was sentenced to [the] death penalty. When the Attorney General’s office got it when it came back on appeal, they pled it to manslaughter, three counts of manslaughter, looking at over 100 years, and that’s when he (Caldwell) made the assurance to Calcasieu Parish [that Cisco] would serve the rest of his life in jail, and that almost didn’t happen.”
With only Justice Jeffrey Victory dissenting, the State Supreme Court threw out the conviction because Lake Charles attorney Evelyn M. Oubre, who defended Cisco, also represented Calcasieu Parish sheriff’s deputy Donald “Lucky” DeLouche, director of the sheriff department’s Violent Crimes Task Force, and his wife in a family law matter, meaning there was a possibility that she represented both the defendant and the state’s primary prosecution witness (DeLouche) simultaneously.
Dwight now says that he doesn’t believe the conflict doesn’t exist anymore and because the crime originated in Calcasieu Parish, “we believe we are the prosecuting agency now.” He said his office wants the file back. “We don’t have it right now but we are requesting that that prosecution come back to our office.”
He added that his office is always present for every parole hearing. “Our office is always present for a parole hearing. We are there to oppose a parole hearing or we give our input to the parole board to let them know if we approve it or not approve it, and we are there in person when we do that, we will do that.” He said if his office gets the file back, he will continue to attend all hearings. “The process worked here because they did realize what happened and corrected the wrong.”
Attempts were made to reach Landry for a comment but apparently, he had gone to the library.