The Louisiana Supreme Court issued a ruling Tuesday, May 3, 2022, denying Grover Cannon’s request to have his 2019 conviction for the first-degree murder of Shreveport police officer Thomas LaValley vacated.
The lengthy trial, which included the selection of a jury from East Baton Rouge Parish, ended with Cannon, now 34, found guilty of the August 5, 2015 slaying of LaValley. LaValley, 29, was shot numerous times after he responded to a disturbance call at Cannon’s home in the Queensborough neighborhood. Cannon faced the death penalty. When the jury could not reach a unanimous decision on that, he was sentenced to life in prison.
Cannon argued that his trial counsel undermined his defense but both the Second Circuit Court of Appeal and now the Louisiana Supreme Court found otherwise.
The single-page ruling exhausts the appeals process for Cannon, now serving a sentence of life imprisonment without parole.
The decision, numbered 2022-K-00271, can be downloaded from the Court website at https://www.lasc.org/opinions/2022/22-0271.K.action.pdf.