Avoyelles Parish's Top 10 stories of 2020

COVID, hurricanes lead the list

What was the top story of 2020? Hmmm. That's a hard one. Let's think.

1. COVID
Of course, the problem with the traditional "Top 10 Stories" article this year isn't what is at No. 1 -- COVID, of course -- but with what can compete with the pandemic for space in the list. There are so many aspects of society that have been affected by the virus and the efforts to contain, control and kill it, that the entire Top 10 could be related to COVID-19.

So, in our "Ode to COVID," we could say, "How do we hate you? Let us count the ways."

COVID-19 is related to the common cold and to the potentially fatal SARS virus. It was first noticed in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. While it is known most often as "Coronovirus Disease 2019," abbreviated as COVID-19 because it was discovered in 2019, it is also known as "Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronovirus 2," or SARS-CoV-2, because it is the second SARS virus.

The story of COVID in Avoyelles began on March 21 when the parish had its first identified case of COVID-19. On March 31 the parish suffered its first COVID-related death.

In the nine months since then, everyday life changed.

Many were laid off when businesses were forced to close or cut back their operations to comply with COVID-control measures during an emergency "stay at home" order. This was followed by a phased-in gradual program to control and defeat the virus and then reopen the state's economy.

School campuses were closed in late March, with hopes the school year would resume in a few weeks. There were those who publicly proclaimed the virus would be vanquished in time for Easter services.

It wasn't.

After seeing progress in the state's efforts, Gov. John Bel Edwards announced the state would go into Phase 2 in June. Shortly after that, the state was hit by a "second wave" of COVID-19, losing much of the ground it had gained during Phase 1.

Phase 2 extended past the scheduled opening day of the school year. Opening day was delayed to late August. {See Top Story 5 for more details on COVID and the schools}

Then, in November the numbers started to climb and there was talk that a "third wave" of COVID seemed to be poised to strike the state, as it had many other states in the nation.

A few days before Thanksgiving, Edwards announced that the state was returning to a "modified Phase 2," stricter than Phase 3 but not as tough as the previous Phase 2.

That is where we are now. Phase 2 will last until at least Jan. 13, Edwards said, but requirements to wear masks in public and maintain appropriate social distancing will be in force for some time after that, even if the state is able to move back into Phase 3.

2. HURRICANES
Hurricane season is supposed to be from June 1 to Nov. 30. The 2020 hurricane season had three named tropical storms before June 1 -- Arthur, Bertha and Cristobal. Of those, Cristobal was the only one to threaten Louisiana and Avoyelles Parish. Fortunately, the storm was weakened by wind shear and did not have much affect on this area.

The state and this area were not as fortunate as the record-breaking season continued.

Hurricane Laura was the strongest storm to hit the state, as a Category 4 monster on Aug. 27. It ripped through the western half of the state. Even though it was many miles away from Avoyelles, the parish sustained widespread power outages, downed trees and heavy rains.

At the same time Hurricane Marco, which formed closer to the U.S. Gulf Coast than Laura, was expected to hit the same area where Laura was headed. The state once again "lucked out" with a strong wind shear that broke Marco up before it made landfall on Aug. 24. It was pretty much gone by Aug. 25.

Instead of a one-two punch from two strong storms, the state sustained heavy rains and some tropical storm-force winds from Marco a few days before Laura stormed ashore in Cameron Parish.

Hurricane Sally was expected to hit near New Orleans on a path that would have swept it through Avoyelles Parish. However, it moved to the east and then even further east over the few days before hitting the Gulf Coast near the Alabama-Florida state line on Sept. 15. It ended up having no effect on us, but dropped about two feet of rain on the communities it did visit and spawned several tornadoes.

Tropical Storm Beta was almost spent by the time it finally arrived in the Avoyelles Parish area on Sept. 23, but it made its presence known with heavy rains -- not as heavy as it dumped on Houston a few days earlier, but enough to make things very soggy.

Avoyelles biggest scare of the hurricane season was Hurricane Delta, which had the parish in its crosshairs and, unlike several of its brothers and sisters before it, did not deviate much. Still, Avoyelles can count its blessings that Delta was weakened enough before it made landfall that it was not the Category 3 monster it was predicted to be when its eye passed near Echo on Oct. 9.

The last "Greek letter" storm to hit the state was Hurricane Zeta on Oct. 28, knocking out power and flooding streets in southeast Louisiana. The storm did not have significant effects in Avoyelles.
As of the writing of this article, hurricane season is supposedly over. However, the previous record-holder 2005 did not give up the ghost until early January 2006.

Season 2005, that gave us Katrina and Rita and other strong storms, had 28 hurricanes and tropical storms -- including a brief storm that was not identified until after the season. As of the writing of this article, Season 2020 had 30.

Overall, 2020 had 13 hurricanes and 17 tropical storms. Of the 13 hurricanes, six were classified as major storms, a Category 3 or higher.

Of the 30 named storms, 12 made landfall in the United States. That broke a record that had stood for over 100 years, of nine landfalls in 1916.

3. ELECTIONS

For the nation, 2020 was a major election year -- president/vice president, House and Senate races were decided.

For Louisiana state and local elections, it wasn't as important as the past two, which included elections for governor, state representatives and senators, sheriff, clerk of court, assessor, police jurors and school board members and several municipalities.

There were some important local races on the ballot this year. Most -- including both district judges -- were decided without an election when only one person qualified for the office. In those races that were held, there was very little fuss.

The exception to that this year was the contest for district attorney.

Three-term incumbent Charles Riddle won re-election by 342 votes over challenger Barry Laiche. Laiche challenged the results, noting a large number of voters who cast ballots for president did not vote in the district attorney election. He also questioned the validity of over 400 absentee mail-in ballots that were not properly filled out and said there were reports of problems with votes being recorded by some voting machines on election day.

Laiche filed suit, but the challenge was short-circuited when Judge Harry Randow -- who was appointed to hear the case -- dismissed the suit, ruling Laiche did not challenge the acceptance of the ballots on election day and could not challenge them after the fact.

Other important election results involved the municipal governments of Simmesport, Cottonport, Hessmer and Plaucheville. There were also elections for ward/city marshals in Marksville and Bunkie amd Bunkie city judge.

In Simmesport, Mayor Leslie Draper was re-elected with 52 percent of the votes over two challengers, including Alderman Ted Turner. District 4 Alderman Sherman Bell was unopposed for re-election. However, there will be four new aldermen for the next four years when they take the oath of office in January: Glenn Gautreaux in District 1, Tiesha Kennedy in District 2 (who defeated incumbent Kenneth Marsh), Patrick Wright in District 3 and Romaro Turner in the at-large position.

In Cottonport, Mayor Scotty Scott, District 2 Alderman Kenneth Friels and District 3 Alderman Luke Welch were re-elected without opposition. District 1 Alderwoman Margaret Prater Jenkins was re-elected, defeating Earnest Anderson with 64 percent of the votes. Anderson chose to run for Town Council instead of seeking re-election as police chief. In District 4, Gerald Mayeux defeated incumbent Demple Prater by four votes, 74-70. However, the year ended with the revelation that Mayeux had moved to Marksville prior to the election and is unable to serve on the Cottonport council.
An interim alderman will be appointed at a special meeting Monday (Jan. 4) to serve until a special election is held in March.

Donald Jenkins defeated Jennifer Lofton in the Dec. 5 runoff for police chief.

Hessmer will have a new mayor -- kind of -- and three new aldermen. Mark Jeansonne was elected as mayor without opposition after incumbent Travis Franks chose not to seek re-election and no other candidates stepped up to seek the position.

This will be a return to City Hall for Jeansonne, who served as mayor from Jan. 1, 1993 to Dec. 31, 2002, when he had to resign in the middle of his third term after being elected to serve as 12th Judicial District judge. He served in that position from Jan. 1, 2003 to Dec. 31, 2015, when he retired from the bench.

All three aldermen are new. Two incumbents did not seek re-election and incumbent Jason Gaspard finished a close fourth in an at-large election with five candidates seeking the three seats. The new aldermen are Dustin Moreau, Ashton Dauzat and Jason Starkey.

Plaucheville's municipal officers -- Mayor Terryl St. Romain and aldermen Craig Gremillion, Guy Lemoine and Robbie Plauche -- were all re-elected to new four-year terms without opposition.

Jeffery Carmouche defeated incumbent Ward 2/Marksville Marshal Floyd Voinche in a Dec. 5 runoff. Carmouche received 52 percent of the votes in the runoff after coming close to a outright victory in the primary with 48 percent of the votes cast. Voinche had 30 percent in the primary and 48 percent in the runoff.

In Bunkie, City Judge Derrick "Digger" Earles was re-elected with 59 percent of the votes cast.

In the Ward 10/Bunkie Marshal's race, Stephen Gremillion fell 22 votes short of a first round victory on Nov. 3 but defeated second-place finisher Leroy Daniels in the Dec. 5 runoff. Incumbent Charles Candella had initially sought re-election but withdrew due to health concerns.

In addition, there was a full slate of justices of the peace and constables elected in the fall, most being incumbents re-elected without opposition.

The year ended with Avoyelles' newly elected U.S. congressman, Luke Letlow, dying of COVID-19 complications just days before he was to be sworn into office. A special election will be held in March to fill that vacant seat.

4. 'THREE R'S' OF TAXES -- RENEWAL, RESTORATION, REMOVAL
Tax elections in Avoyelles could be summed up in the "3 R's" of renewal, restoration and removal from the ballot altogether.

Nobody really likes taxes, but if a constituent wants public services to be provided, then taxes are a necessity. When tax revenues stop flowing for some reason, drastic action must be taken.

The City of Marksville started the year with a serious -- and embarrassing -- problem. It had forgotten to renew a 1-cent sales tax that expired at the end of 2018. To make matters worse, they collected the tax for the entire year of 2019 and a week into January 2020 when the snafu was discovered.

The city stopped receiving the tax and underwent a series of budget cuts, including layoffs. The City Council scheduled an election in April to ask voters to approve a 1-cent tax that would restore the revenue to the city's coffers. It was hoped the tax would pass and be back on the books in time for last half of the year.

Then COVID struck and the election was delayed. Then it was delayed again. It was finally approved by voters on Aug. 15 -- the only item on the ballot that day.

A few other tax proposals also made news during the year.

Cottonport's 1-cent sales tax was renewed in November. Mayor Scott admitted that had Marksville's failure to renew its sales tax not happened, Cottonport quite possibly would have not thought about renewing the tax. The tax is renewed every 25 years.

The Police Jury had called a 1/2 cent sales tax, then reduced it to a 1/4-cent sales tax for courthouse renovations and repairs and then removed the proposal from the ballot, concluding the tax did not have a realistic chance of passing.

The School Board had two taxes renewed in the Dec. 5 election. A 1/4-cent sales tax and a 10-mill property tax, both dedicated solely to paying school district employees' salaries and benefits, were renewed for another 10-year period.

5. VIRTUAL EDUCATION IN APSD

Some might say this is just another part of the COVID story, but it goes beyond a response to an emergency situation.

APSD dipped its toe into the virtual classroom waters shortly after the second semester of the 2019-20 school year began. It contracted with an out-of-state company to provide live classroom instruction by highly qualified teachers to Avoyelles High School math classes. The School Board decided it was a better option than putting a long-term -- most likely uncertified -- substitute in the classes for the rest of the school year.

Initial responses and results were good. It looked like the district might've found a work-around to its teacher shortage problem.

Then COVID struck and everything was swept away.

During the summer, as the public school district waited to see if school campuses would reopen and, if so, under what conditions, the School Board authorized spending about $2 million in federal education emergency funds to purchase a laptop for every student and to contract to install WiFi "hotspots" throughout the parish to enable even students in remote areas with no internet service to be able to attend school "virtually."

The "virtual option" rolled out when schools finally opened in late August. In addition to a large number of students choosing a virtual learning experience, the other students had to spend two of their four school days online and the other two on-campus.

A weakness of virtual education was brought home on Oct. 1 when a hacker launched a cyber attack in an unsuccessful effort to extort money from the school district. It took two weeks to rebuild the system, but Superintendent Blaine Dauzat said the computer system -- which also controls the telephone service to the schools -- is much stronger and secure now.

Also in October the parish and state once again appeared to be winning the war and entered Phase 3. APSD discontinued the "hybrid" program. At the end of the first 9 weeks, a large number of the "virtual only" students transferred to on-campus classrooms. However, there is still a large group of "virtual" students.

When Gov. Edwards pulled the state back into a "modified Phase 2," he allowed schools to continue operating under Phase 3 conditions. District officials have said they are prepared to go back to the hybrid plan -- or even an all-virtual program -- should COVID conditions worsen and stricter controls are imposed.

It has been suggested that Avoyelles Parish schools may retain a virtual element in the district even after COVID is just an unpleasant memory. It is definitely a highly prized "second string quarterback" to the tried and true classroom instruction.

6. COURT CASES

When an arrest is made, a trial held, a verdict reached and a sentence handed down, a criminal case is still not over. Years later things can happen that can overturn previous court decisions and either send the case back to court or set the convicted person free.

In April of this year the Supreme Court ruled in another Louisiana murder case that Louisiana's law allowing for non-unanimous verdicts in major criminal trials was unconstitutional. The decision is known as the Ramos case.

The state had done away with the "10-is-enough" rule the previous year when a constitutional amendment went into effect. That amendment only dealt with trials after that date.

The Supreme Court decision went further back, affecting crimes and verdicts that occurred under the non-unanimous verdict law.

In October the Supreme Court applied its recent decision to Mayeux's case and vacated the conviction and sentence of Charles Mayeux and ordered a new trial be held on charges of 2nd degree murder. Mayeux was convicted in September 2017 on a 10-2 vote for the March 2015 murder of his wife, Shelly Mayeux.

The Ramos decision that was applied to Mayeux's conviction could also affect another non-unanimous verdict of another 2015 death -- Derrick Stafford. Stafford was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 40 years in prison for the shooting death of 6-year-old Jeremy Mardis in November 2015.

He was tried for 2nd degree murder but a jury voted 10-2 to convict on the lesser charge of manslaughter in late March 2017. He was also convicted of attempted manslaughter for the near-fatal wounding of Jeremy's father, Chris Few.

The shooting occurred after Stafford and fellow Marksville deputy marshal Norris Greenhouse Jr. pursued Few to a dead end street and then fired 18 bullets into the vehicle -- which was either stopped or slowly backing away from the officers. The child was killed in the barrage of bullets and Few was critically wounded but survived.

Stafford's trial attorney incorrectly posted on Facebook that Stafford's sentence had been vacated and he would be soon be released. Stafford's appeals attorney said that was not true and he was still preparing his appeal, which will be based in large part on the Ramos ruling.

Another "ghost" from the past surfaced again this year. Vincent Simmons, convicted of two counts of attempted aggravated rape of 14-year-old twins in 1977, has maintained his innocence and alleged he was the victim of systemic racism. He was sentenced to two consecutive 50-year sentences. He has filed numerous appeals over the past four decades and has attracted an international group of supporters seeking his release.

In October Simmons' new attorney, Justin Bonus of New York, filed a motion asking for the conviction to be thrown out or for a new trial to be held to consider newly discovered evidence and evidence that was never presented in the original trial.

The Ramos ruling is not in play in this case. At least, not directly.

Simmons' verdict was unanimous by a jury of 11 white men and one black woman. The black juror has recently said she was coerced into voting guilty and was told by the other jurors that they didn't need her vote because 10 was enough convict.

She told Bonus she would now vote not guilty after being made aware of evidence that was not presented in court or provided to Simmons' defense attorneys prior to his trial.

In addition to pursuing that motion, with hearings scheduled early next year, Simmons has been granted a hearing by the state Pardon Board on a request for clemency. That is also expected to take place in 2021.

7. PROTESTS

In addition to COVID and natural disasters, 2020 was also a year of social protests. Mnay of the highly publicized protests around the nation dealt with the death of George Floyd and the rise of the "Black Lives Matter" movement against excessive force by police officers -- especially against African American men.

There were several events during 2020 which touched on this topic. All were peaceful and orderly. The focus was on asking questions, promoting an open dialog and seeking to unite all segments of the community to work toward a common goal of justice for all citizens, respect for all people and better training for law enforcement personnel so they don't resort to unnecessary and excessive force.

In June a small group gathered in front of the district attorney's office to express their concerns. A larger event was held on the courthouse steps a few days later.

The Avoyelles Mayors Association held a forum to start an open discussion in the parish about the important issues raised by Black Lives Matter.

Avoyelles Coalition Task Force, a group of primarily African American ministers, focused on a local case that could easily have sparked the same national outcry as the George Floyd death had it been more widely publicized.

The Task Force asked District Attorney Charles Riddle to reopen the investigation into the October 2017 death of Armando Frank, who died while being arrested in the Walmart parking lot.

The group also asked state Rep. Daryl Deshotel to reconsider his support for a bill allowing a person to carry a concealed weapon into a church -- even if it is against the church membership's wishes.

Later in the year, the group raised concerns over the Avoyelles School Board's plan not to renew a private company's contract to operate the district's alternative school for expelled and behavioral problem students.

They said they feared a district-operated program would not be as effective and would result in more dropouts from the type of students who have been helped by this program. It was noted that African American male students make up a considerable portion of the students in the alternative program.

Another area of protest with some racial overtones was in Bunkie, where separate actions of Mayor Bruce Coulon and Police Chief Scott Ferguson eventually led to a recall campaign.

Coulon was criticized for allegedly being slow to require a white woman to comply with the city's vicious dog ordinance while there were reportedly cases of black men having their dogs taken for similar violations of the ordinance.

The group had several complaints about Ferguson and his officers.

There was another event in the parish that was not promoted as a protest, but could have been.

Juneteenth is a recognized holiday in almost all states, including Louisiana. It commemorates June 19, 1865 -- the day a unit of Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, and read a proclamation informing former slaves that they were free.

It is commonly called "Juneteenth," but is also called "Freedom Day" in some areas of the nation.

Juneteenth around the nation took on more political undertones this year than in recent years.

The Bunkie Juneteenth event was also one of the few to be held despite concerns over COVID.

8. MURDERS

This year began with four homicides in January.

Terrell Ford II of Morrow was shot in his car outside a zydeco concert in Opelousas. Morrow is a St. Landry Parish town that is part of the extended Bunkie community. His mother is a Bunkie businesswoman.
Davis Cooper was shot on his porch on Overton Street in Marksville.

Detravion Burnett was fatally wounded while sitting in a pickup truck on La. Hwy 115 in Bunkie. He died at Bunkie General.
Deandre Williams was killed in his home on Faith Baptist Mission Road. The death was later classified as a negligent homicide.

It looked like April would try to match January for death, with two murders in the first half of the month.

Timothy Borrel was stabbed to death in his Marksville home. Gage Michot, 17, was arrested driving Borrel's truck and charged with his murder.

Terrence Dupuy, a well-known videographer in Marksville, was shot by his son Eden on Easter Sunday. The younger Dupuy then killed himself.

There were a few months with no murders, but then came the summer.

In August another murder shocked the parish when Thomas McGhee, 27, of Bunkie attempted to stop a late night argument in Cottonport and was killed by a single shot allegedly fired by Devante Caldwell, 26, of Cottonport.

The incident became known as the "peacemaker murder."

Caldwell was arrested and charged with 2nd degree murder in connection with the shooting. He told officers someone punched him in the mouth during the argument. He responded by firing several shots at the other man and one of those bullets struck McGhee.

Summer ended with another tragic murder-suicide when Braxton James shot and killed Bianca Williams in a St. Charles Street residence before turning the gun on himself.

Despite the long list of deaths in the first eight months, 2020 had not yet satisfied its bloodlust.

In early November Cory Williams, 42, was shot on his front porch in Simmesport. He was taken to a Lafayette hospital with a single gunshot wound. He died at the hospital. Two men have been arrested on charges of obstructing the homicide investigation, but no charges have been filed concerning the shooting. Simmesport Police Chief Glenn Hall said case is still under active investigation and additional charges and arrests are likely.

In late November, Rondrikus Fulton was shot once in the head at a residence in Bunkie. Shedrick Wiley, 41, of Bunkie was initially arrested on a charge of attempted murder in connection with that shooting. Fulton died in the hospital. Authorities had not yet upgraded Wiley's charges to murder as of press time for this edition. However, they said the case is still under investigation and one or more arrests are possible.

The death toll could have been much higher. There were also several drive-by shooting incidents during the year, with some inflicting wounds and resulting in arrests while others' intent was more to put fear into the shooters' targets and the communities that had to witness such acts of violence.

The aftermath of 2019's murders also spilled over into 2020, with multiple arrests and indictments of suspects in the previous year's homicide cases.

Marksville was once again rated as one of the 10 "most violent" cities in Louisiana. It "improved" from 7th to 4th. That rating is based on the reported incidents of homicide, armed robberies and assaults involving a weapon in 2018. The FBI report for 2019 will be released in late 2021 and for 2020 in 2022.

The FBI notes that not all municipalities participate in its Uniform Crime Report program and that its figures are based on what participating agencies send in. For that reason, it strongly discourages using the annual report to compare communities. That does not stop the annual comparisons.

The "most violent" list is not based on arrests. As noted above, there can be multiple arrests for a single crime and no arrests for a crime.

Crimes from other jurisdictions are not attributed to Marksville because it is the parish seat or the only municipality with a population of over 5,000, as some who wish to dispute the ranking have alleged.

Many municipalities in the FBI report are smaller than Marksville, but online entities reporting the annual crime rates only look at those with 5,000 or more.

Marksville is the only Avoyelles Parish municipality in the 2020 FBI report.

Marksville is consistently the smallest city on the "Most Violent."

The report for 2019 was not reported by the paper this year, but Marksville is No. 3 on the 2020 list. Almost all of the offenses that put Marksville in that position are aggravated assaults -- which include drive-by shooting, attempted murder, beating, stabbing, etc.

9. AVOYELLES' DEADLIEST DAY

June 22 may have been the deadliest day of the year for Avoyelles Parish.

A three-car accident on La. Hwy 29 killed five people and injured six more. It was State Police Troop E's deadliest accident of 2020.
State Police said the accident occurred at about 11:30 a.m. when a northbound 2009 Ford F-150 crossed the center line and struck a southbound Ford van head-on. After this collision left both vehicles disabled in the roadway, a 2014 Toyota Corolla struck the van.

The driver and a passenger in the F-150 were killed. A child in the vehicle was seriously injured. Three passengers in the van were killed while the driver and three other passengers were seriously injured.

The driver of the Corolla received minor injuries and was taken to a local hospital.

10. LMA AWARDS

While it seems that only the "bad news" makes it on a "Top 10 Stories" list, an objective counting of all news items in the local newspaper would show most are "neutral" and there are more "good news" items than "bad news" ones.

The top "good news" story of the year is the parish's outstanding showing at the recent Louisiana Municipal Association event which saw Simmesport and Bunkie capture top honors in their size division with 1st place Community Achievement Awards.

The LMA's annual awards program recognizes municipalities for outstanding achievement in basic services, community development, economic development and technology/creativity. Within these categories, awards are presented in four population subcategories. The LMA calls the annual awards the "Oscars for municipalities," because it recognizes the achievements of municipal governments.

Simmesport took top honors for Economic Development for municipalities with under 3,000 population. Bunkie was the Community Development winner for municipalities with 3,001 to 10,000 residents.

The winners didn't only have to impress LMA representatives, but judges from the Louisiana Department of Economic Development, Louisiana Industrial Development Executives Association, Capital Region Planning Commission, Louisiana Association of Planning and Development Districts, Louisiana Main Street and State Fire Marshal's Office.

The LMA represents 305 municipal governments -- including two city/parish consolidated boards.

Simmesport received its award for its financial "Crisis and Recovery Plan" that allowed the town to overcome crippling debt that had also deprived it from competing for grants.

Bunkie was recognized for the effort of the non-profit Move Bunkie Forward organization. MBF has been operating healthy lifestyle-oriented programs in Bunkie since 2014. It recently received a three-year $150,000 grant from Rapides Foundation to expand the MBF program, including hiring Ashley Boggs as full-time coordinator, .

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