(Updated) Jury: Hamilton guilty of 2nd-degree murder

A jury found Marcus Jay Hamilton, 21, of Patterson, guilty of second-degree murder Thursday afternoon in the January 2013 shooting death of Keyiona Chenevert, 18, of Bayou Vista.
The six-man, six-woman jury deliberated nearly three hours before reaching a verdict about 2:45 p.m. District Judge Keith Comeaux set Hamilton’s sentencing date for June 20. Second-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison at hard labor without the possibility of parole.
A grand jury indicted Hamilton in May 2013 on the charge of second-degree murder in connection with Chenevert’s death. Chenevert was found dead Jan. 21, 2013, in her apartment on Three B’s Lane in Bayou Vista.
The third day of Hamilton’s trial began with the jury reviewing evidence the prosecution presented at trial.
In closing arguments, Prosecutor Anthony Saleme said that Chenevert’s death wasn’t an accident as Hamilton would have jurors believe.
“This was an execution,” Saleme said.
Hamilton had “specific intent to kill” Chenevert, which is a definition of second-degree murder, Saleme said.
Texts on the night and early morning leading up to Chenevert’s death between Hamilton and Chenevert showed the two had an intimate relationship, Saleme said.
Hamilton’s attorney Garron Johnson told jurors the appropriate conviction should be negligent homicide because Hamilton had no intent to kill Chenevert.
Johnson said Chenevert’s death was an “unfortunate accident” and not an execution.
Hamilton was 18 years old when Chenevert died.
“He was a kid who made a mistake,” Johnson said.
Executions are done at close range, Johnson said.
“She didn’t go out that way,” Johnson said.
Medical Examiner Dr. Samantha Huber testified that Chenevert’s cause of death was a single gunshot wound to the back of the head.
Huber said she determined the gun was more than six inches from the back of Chenevert’s head when it was fired, but couldn’t determine exactly how far the gun was from Chenevert.
Saleme said Hamilton took steps to try to conceal the truth of his involvement in killing Chenevert by taking shell casings from Chenevert’s apartment in Bayou Vista after he shot her and deleting records of conversations he had with his cousin Treylon Jenkins, from whom he borrowed the gun he used to kill Chenevert.
Hamilton also texted Chenevert’s phone twice after he knew she had already been shot to try to “cover his tracks,” Saleme said.
Phone records showed the last call Chenevert ever made was to Hamilton at 1:02 a.m. Jan. 21, 2013, followed by her final text at 1:03 a.m. Hamilton texted Chenevert at 1:26 a.m. and 1:43 a.m.
Investigators said phone records also showed that Hamilton was in Bayou Vista when Chenevert made her final text and call to Hamilton, but Hamilton was in Patterson when he texted her 30 minutes later.
The story Hamilton told detectives during his three-hour interrogation Feb. 28, 2013, of an accidental shooting didn’t make sense, Saleme said.
Sheriff’s Office Capt. Sennet Wiggins, who helped conduct the interview, testified that Hamilton stated Chenevert had come up with a plan to make money for the baby she told him she was expecting. Hamilton stated that Chenevert planned to set up a transaction with two men and needed Hamilton’s protection, Wiggins said.
During an encounter with the two men at Chenevert’s apartment, Hamilton stated that one of the men came at Hamilton with a knife so Hamilton fired two shots with one inadvertently hitting Chenevert in the back of the head, Wiggins said.
During Chenevert’s autopsy, Huber determined that Chenevert wasn’t pregnant.
The killing of Chenevert was not second-degree murder, Johnson said, because Jenkins, who loaned the gun to Hamilton, was never charged as an accessory to the crime.
Johnson asked the jury to give Chenevert’s family closure, but Saleme said the jury’s job was to bring Chenevert and her family justice not closure.
Investigators weren’t on a “witch hunt” to arrest Hamilton, and, instead, did a complete investigation that took over a month to identify Hamilton as a suspect, Saleme said.
Sheriff’s Office Capt. Gilbert Blanchard testified that he located bullet fragments in Chenevert and inside a stove in Chenevert’s apartment consistent with .45 Long Colt ammo that Jenkins purchased less than a month before Chenevert was killed.
Jenkins testified that he loaned a Taurus Judge revolver to Hamilton around 11 p.m. Jan. 20, 2013, but thought Hamilton just needed the gun for protection. Jenkins said Hamilton returned the gun to Jenkins around 4 a.m. Jan. 21, 2013.
Jenkins said he lost possession of the gun in February 2013, and detectives were never able to find it.
Johnson said all he saw was remorse after Hamilton told detectives in the interrogation video that he had accidentally killed Chenevert. Johnson said Hamilton was sorry for what happened, and Johnson expressed his condolences to the Chenevert family.
Saleme saw no remorse and no emotion in the video after Hamilton had just said, for the first time, he killed someone with whom Hamilton had stated he was about to start a family, Saleme said.