Louisiana news briefs

Jindal intervenes to save St. Mary Parish oak trees
BATON ROUGE (AP) — State highway officials have agreed not to cut down 13 oak trees — some 100 years old or older — along a two-lane stretch of highway in St. Mary Parish now that Gov. Bobby Jindal has intervened.
Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development Secretary Sherri Lebas, in a news release Tuesday, said Jindal asked the department to preserve the trees “because of their importance to the parish and state.”
DOTD had marked 36 oak trees along a 4.73-mile section of La. 182 for destruction in order to produce a 10-foot clear zone between the road and obstructions. Lebas says the department recognizes the significance of the 13 trees and they will not be removed. There was no mention of the other 23.
“These oak trees are a part of our Louisiana heritage and represent hundreds of years of our state’s history,” Jindal said in the release.
Lebas said the department may only need to trim low-hanging branches to allow safe passage of large sugar cane trucks and farm equipment. It also may install safety enhancements like rumble striping along the edge of the roadway, non-reflective raised pavement markings and enhanced signage.
Lebas said the project is expected to begin in February.
More than 670 people signed an online petition asking the DOTD not to kill the oak trees.

Motion: Jail snitch should tell Miranda rights
KENNER (AP) — The lawyer for a man accused of killing and dismembering a Bourbon Street dancer says the judge should throw out a confession he allegedly made to a cellmate in New York.
Jefferson Parish public defender John Benz argues that Christian Del Rosario was acting as a state agent when he became a cellmate of Terry Speaks.
He says that means the man should have told Speaks that he had a right to remain silent or consult an attorney, and that anything he said might be used against him.
Benz filed the motion Monday.
Speaks and his girlfriend, Margaret Sanchez, are charged with second-degree murder of Jaren Lockhart, who was killed in 2012. Parts of her body washed up on Mississippi beaches.
Both have pleaded not guilty.

Report: Orleans ankle monitor problem wastes money
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — New Orleans’ inspector general says the ankle monitor problem run by the sheriff’s office is “almost a total failure.”
The report issued Wednesday by Ed Quatrevaux cites poor supervision of both inmates and deputies, poor record-keeping and vague policies.
Sheriff Marlin Gusman’s top deputies said last month that the office will stop the program Jan. 2.
Quatrevaux’s staff reviewed files for 281 participants from April through September of 2012 — the month before a National Institute of Justice review.
Among other things, the 66-page report says deputies failed to have the global positioning system flag 35 out of 37 locations that defendants had to stay away from under restraining orders.
A statement from Sheriff Marlin Gusman says Quatrevaux’s comments “smack of political grandstanding.” He says there have been many improvements since the National Institute of Justice report.

Casino worker accused
of taking photos in restroom
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — An employee of Harrah’s New Orleans is accused of taking a cellphone picture of a patron’s private parts inside the men’s restroom at the casino.
Jeremiah Johnson, 35, of Harvey, was booked with video voyeurism. It carries a penalty of one to five years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
According to a New Orleans police arrest report, a customer was using a urinal around noon Sunday, when he noticed a Harrah’s employee snapping a photo of his exposed penis. The customer notified casino staff, and Johnson was detained.
Johnson’s bond was set Monday at $5,000. It was unclear if he has an attorney.

Man accused in 2008 cold case of strangled woman
NEW IBERIA (AP) — A 60-year-old man arrested in Missouri is the suspect in a 2008 murder of a 61-year-old woman strangled in her New Iberia home, the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office said.
Sheriff Louis Ackal said Keith Leleux, of Forsyth, Missouri, will be charged with first-degree murder and awaits extradition in the death of Judy Landry, who was found strangled on July 1, 2008.
“They’re going to get him and bring him back to Louisiana,” Ackal said.
Ackal said he was pleased with the arrest because the case has haunted him throughout the years and occurred as he was being sworn into his first term as sheriff. “I still go to bed thinking about this case,” he said.
Leleux was arrested Nov. 20 in Forsyth on a charge of second-degree domestic assault in an unrelated case and was being held on $25,000 bond, according to Taney County Sheriff Jimmie Russell.
Russell said Ackal’s office reached out to him after Leleux’s arrest there. Neither he nor Ackal indicated what led them to link Leleux to the Landry case.
Leleux’s bond was removed per the upgraded charges and extradition notice and will remain in police custody, Russell said.
According to reports from 2008, Landry’s husband, Edmond Landry, found his wife with zip ties tightened around her neck when he returned home from work. Edmond Landry said he cut those ties in an attempt to save his wife, but to no avail.
Authorities struggled to determine the manner of death because of inconclusive DNA tests on those zip ties, but the positioning of ligature marks on Judy Landry’s neck helped lead Ackal to the conclusion of homicide. Though Edmond Landry was initially considered as a suspect, the Sheriff’s Office hadn’t turned up any evidence to substantiate that suspicion.

Port, Norwegian Cruise Line ink new pact
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Norwegian Cruise Line and the Board of Commissioners of the Port of New Orleans have signed a new four-year berthing deal that keeps at least one ship sailing from the city through 2018.
The port, in a statement Tuesday, said the agreement includes three, one-year options that gives the port the ability to extend the agreement through 2021. The cruise line has sailed from New Orleans since 2003.
The agreement follows the Norwegian Dawn’s maiden voyage to New Orleans on Nov. 21. The 2,340-passenger ship began sailing seven-day itineraries to Cozumel, Mexico; Belize City, Belize; Roatan Bay Islands, Honduras; and Costa Maya, Mexico on Nov. 23 from the Julia Street Cruise Terminal.
Cruise Lines International Association ranks New Orleans as the sixth largest cruise port in the United States.