Louisiana news briefs

Convicted killer loses appeal
BATON ROUGE (AP) — Condemned serial killer Derrick Todd Lee has failed to convince a state judge that he deserves a new trial in the 2002 slaying of former LSU graduate student Charlotte Murray Pace.
Lee’s case now goes to the Louisiana Supreme Court. If justices also reject Lee’s arguments, the case would move to the federal post-conviction relief stage.
District Judge Richard Anderson on Tuesday denied the 45-year-old St. Francisville man’s state court petition for post-conviction relief. Anderson rejected, among other things, Lee’s claims of ineffective assistance of counsel at the guilt and penalty phases of his trial in Baton Rouge.
Lee was found guilty in 2004 of first-degree murder in the May 31, 2002, killing of the 22-year-old Pace and sentenced to death. He also was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in the January 2002 killing of 21-year-old Geralyn Barr DeSoto, of Addis.
He is suspected of killing seven south Louisiana women between 1998 and 2003.
At the penalty phase of Lee’s trial in the slaying of Pace, prosecutors introduced evidence of four other murders and an attempted murder that he allegedly committed. The other murders included Pam Kinamore, Gina Wilson Green and Carrie Lynn Yoder, each of Baton Rouge, and Trineisha Dene’ Colomb, of Lafayette.
Prosecutors also believe Lee is responsible for the death of Randi Mebruer, of Zachary.

Leesville man accused
of trying to buy child
LEESVILLE (AP) — A 66-year-old Leesville man is in custody, accused of trying to buy and rape a 10-year-old child.
Scott Moreau, spokesman for Louisiana State Police Troop E, says Ernest Kickel Jr. was arrested Monday on charges of attempted aggravated rape and trafficking of children for sexual purposes.
Moreau says items were found in Kickel’s home corroborating his plan to have sex with a minor child. He did not specify what those items were.
Kickel is in the Vernon Parish jail on $1.5 million bond. It was unknown whether Kickel has an attorney.
Kickel unsuccessfully ran for an at-large seat on the Leesville City Council in the April 5 election, getting 11 percent of the vote.

Home invader fatally shot
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — New Orleans police say a would-be home invader was shot and killed by a homeowner.
Police said in a news release that a 28-year-old man and his 36-year-old wife were on their backyard patio around 10 p.m. Wednesday when a 25-year-old gunman, his face covered in a mask, walked up and demanded they give him money.
They say the gunman ordered the couple into their home where the couple’s three children - ages 6, 13 and 14 - were inside.
Detectives say at some point the husband was able to retrieve his gun and fatally shot the gunman, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
The fatal home invasion happened in the Algiers section of New Orleans
Police have not release the gunman’s name.

Offshore acreage sold
(AP) The federal government has sold more than 400,000 acres in the Gulf of Mexico off the Texas coast for oil and gas exploration and development, an official with the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said Wednesday.
The acreage represents a fraction of the 21.6 million acres the agency had offered as part of the Obama administration’s five-year program to aggressively develop resources on the Outer Continental Shelf. Offerings since 2012 in the western Gulf attracted buyers for about 60 million offshore acres, adding about $2.3 billion to the U.S. Treasury.
Wednesday’s sales, if approved, will bring in about $110 million, the agency’s western Gulf of Mexico Deputy Director Michael Celata said.

Longville volunteer fireman gets 5 years for arson
BATON ROUGE (AP) — The Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry says a former volunteer firefighter from Longville has been sentenced to five years at hard labor for setting wildfires in woods near his home town.
Court documents show that Brandon Lee Harris was sentenced to five years on each of three counts of arson, but the sentences will be served at the same time and with credit for time served.
A department news release Wednesday says four years could be suspended.
Harris was arrested in February after a month-long investigation by the department and the Beauregard Parish District Attorney’s Office.
According to the news release, Harris told investigators he set the fires to be paid as a volunteer firefighter and for the excitement of fighting fires.

Levee work advances
BATON ROUGE (AP) — Contractors have completed a segment of the Morganza-to-the-Gulf levee tying into the Houma Navigation Canal south of Dulac.
Terrebonne Levee District Director Reggie Dupre addressed the state’s Coastal Restoration and Protection Authority Board on Wednesday to update the parish’s progress in the footprint of the Morganza project.
Dupre said work was recently completed on five miles of the levees between the floodgates on the Houma Navigation Canal and Bayou Grand Caillou (ky-YOU). The stretch is part of one that runs parallel alongside the Houma Navigation Canal and will eventually tie into levees to be built along Falgout Canal Road.
Dupre said the 110-foot floodgate to be installed on Bayou Little Caillou south of Chauvin is under construction.

Man sentenced in
New Orleans home invasion
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A New Orleans man charged in a home invasion that left three people dead was sentenced Wednesday to 35 years in prison as part of a plea agreement.
Court records show Dwayne Johnson, 22, pleaded guilty Tuesday to three counts of manslaughter. Judge Walter Rothschild sentenced Johnson to serve his term without the benefit of probation or parole. He was given credit for time already served.
Johnson and co-defendant Charles Franklin, 26, were initially charged with three counts of first-degree murder. District attorney’s spokesman Christopher Bowman said the case against Franklin is being re-evaluated following Johnson’s plea.
Police say Johnson and Franklin broke into a house in the city’s St. Roch neighborhood in January 2010. Prosecutors say the two men opened fire, killing three people and wounding a fourth.
Police said the home invasion was believed to be related to drug trafficking.
Johnson and Franklin have been jailed since early 2010.