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Murder trial rescheduled

By PRESTON GILL pgill@daily-review.com

The trial date for Justin Patterson, 24, of Morgan City, for the May 20 murder of Mikki Dauntain has been moved from Tuesday to March 17 on a motion by defense attorney Heather Hendrix.
Patterson is charged with second degree murder, possession of firearm by a felon and possession of firearm in firearm-free zone.
Dauntain, 23, of Morgan City, was shot during an altercation in the Garber Street and Federal Avenue area. He was pronounced dead less than an hour after the shooting by doctors at Teche Regional Medical Center in Morgan City.
In a related development in the case, an arraignment date of Dec. 10 has been set for Joseph Patrick Madise, 60, of Morgan City, on the felony charges of accessory after the fact to second degree murder and obstruction of justice in the murder investigation.
Madise is accused by police of helping hide clothing from the murder and then burning a set of gloves used in the crime.
Nine people were arrested in the aftermath of Dauntain’s death. Madise is the second person to have been charged by the district attorney.
Assistant district attorney Anthony Saleme said other charges are being reviewed.
Records at the 16th Judicial District Courthouse reveal previously unpublished details of the murder for which Patterson is accused of having committed, including that Dauntain may not have been the intended target of the murder.
Morgan City police said that Brandon Scott thought he was likely the intended target of the shooting. Scott said he had learned “Bullet Chain,” the street name of Patterson, was attempting to locate him because Patterson believed Scott had robbed him. Scott also said “Bullet Chain” wanted to fight him.
Police said that Patterson’s sister, Jessicah Charisse Johnson, 20, of Bowman Street in Morgan City, also claimed Scott was the intended target.
Patterson’s arrest affidavit said the victim’s girlfriend, Natasha Garner, said Johnson had been involved with other females in a dispute with Scott earlier. Police said a deleted text message from Patterson’s phone to the phone used by Johnson immediately before the murder said “Keep yo eyes on him.” The message was sent as Patterson was traveling from Bayou Vista to Morgan City, the affidavit said.
The affidavit said during the earlier altercation with Scott, Johnson had said, “You better get your boys from Patterson, because I am going to get my brother who plays with guns.”
Garner told police she was driving her car with Dauntain and Scott in it when they were flagged down. Then a group of girls began to beat on her car as Johnson knocked out the back window, the affidavit said. Dauntain got out of the car and was subsequently shot. Garner later identified Patterson as the shooter although she described him as wearing a bandana which concealed the lower portion of his face.
Patterson’s bail had been set at $1.03 million but he is being held for violating his probation terms. Patterson was given a 5-year suspended sentence on May 4, 2012, after pleading guilty to possession of marijuana with intent to distribute.
In that case Patterson was the subject of an investigation by the St. Mary Parish Narcotics Task Force. He was the passenger in a car being driven by Linda Madise. Police said that Patterson had bags of marijuana in his pocket and there was a larger bag of marijuana on the front passenger seat.
Morgan City Police Chief Travis Crouch said Linda Madise, 37, of Sixth Street in Morgan City, is the mother of Ashley Nicole Rudolph, 21, of Bowman Street in Morgan City, who was Patterson’s girlfriend at the time of the murder.
The arrest affidavit said Rudolph told Linda Madise that Patterson told her to get rid of the gun so she and Guidry crossed the La. 182 bridge and Rudolph threw the gun into the river.
The affidavit said Linda Madise admitted she, Rudolph and Lyndsey Guidry burned clothing worn by Patterson. She said she got the clothes from her ex-husband, Joseph Patrick Madise, who kept them after Rudolph and Guidry brought them to his house.
According to the affidavit, Linda Madise said she talked to Cassandra Garrett, Patterson’s mother, about the clothes and that Garrett asked her to take care of the items and that Garrett had thanked her after she was told that the clothes were burned.
Garrett, 49, of Bowman Street in Morgan City, was a St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s deputy at the time of the incident, according to Morgan City police. Garrett’s status as a deputy could not be obtained from the sheriff’s office this morning.
According to the document, Linda Madise said her daughter had approached her after they burned the clothes and told her that she had located the gloves that Patterson “had worn at the time of the murder in their truck.” She said she, her daughter and ex-husband burned the gloves in a skillet inside of his residence and threw away the skillet it was burned in.
The affidavit said Linda Madise told police that Johnson told her that she had picked up her brother and dropped him off down the street from where the shooting eventually occurred and that “Justin ran out and shot intending to kill Brandon Scott, but that he mistakenly killed Mikki Dauntain in the process.”
Patterson is held at the Iberia Parish Prison.
Crouch said the investigation in the case is ongoing.
Other arrests made in the case include:
—Linda Madise, for accessory after the fact to second degree murder and obstruction of justice.
—Johnson, for principle to second degree murder.
—Garrett, for accessory after the fact to second degree murder and for criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice.
—Guidry, 22, of Florence Street in Morgan City, for accessory after the fact to second degree murder and obstruction of justice.
—Ashley Joseph Thomas, 44, of Elmer Street in St. Martinville, for accessory after the fact to second degree murder and on a warrant for criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice.
—Etoyi Monray Jones, 37, of Bowman Street in Morgan City, for accessory after the fact to second degree murder and obstruction of justice.

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