A Shreveport man whose retrial for murder and manslaughter last month resulted in unanimous guilty verdicts necessitated by a 2020 US Supreme Court ruling, was sentenced Monday, February 24, 2025 in Caddo District Court.
District Judge Erin Leigh Waddell Garrett sentenced Jerry Jackson, 57, to serve a mandatory life term in prison at hard labor for his second-degree murder conviction, and to 40 years for the manslaughter conviction, the terms to be served consecutively.
Jackson first was convicted in 2019 of the 2016 slayings of his stepson and a neighbor. However, he was retried and convicted again this year.
On July 20, 2016, Jackson shot and killed his stepson, Kendrick Brown, and a neighbor, Michael Dillard, in front of the Bond Drive residence of his wife, Rhonda Brown. After the shooting, Jackson tried to hide the .22 caliber rifle he used in the slayings by giving it to a friend. The friend notified the Caddo Parish Sheriff s office, which in turn notified the Shreveport Police Department. The rifle was collected and matched to the .22 caliber casings at the crime scene. In addition, Jackson’s then-wife, Rhonda Brown, and a neighbor also testified that Jackson had shot the two victims.
Jackson’s retrial was necessitated by the 2020 U.S. Supreme Court decision Ramos v. Louisiana, 590 U.S. 83, in which the Court ruled that the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution requires that guilty verdicts be unanimous in criminal trials.
Jackson was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Bill Edwards and Kodie Smith. He was defended by Sean Landry.
The case was docket No. 406516.
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