From the Desk of the District Attorney

September 2, 2025

For more information, call John Andrew Prime at (318) 617-5958 or Ivy Woodard at (318) 422-1623, or call the Caddo Parish District Attorney's office at (318) 226-6955.

From the Desk of the District Attorney

The Louisiana Supreme Court’s 2024 report on Louisiana courts was recently released.  Of note, Caddo Parish, the state’s sixth most populous parish at 221,290, had 6,962 adult criminal non-traffic court filings and 60 jury trials in 2024.  By comparison, the fifth-highest populated parish is Lafayette Parish at 253,822, and the seventh-highest populated parish is Calcasieu Parish at 206,707.  In 2024, Lafayette Parish conducted nine jury trials and Calcasieu Parish conducted nine jury trials.  The 12 criminal court judges of our fourth largest parish, St. Tammany Parish at 280,275, conducted 42 jury trials. 

With our Caddo system set for five of the eleven parish adult court judges to hear criminal cases, and four of the eleven to conduct almost all jury trials, our jury trial completion numbers remain outstanding.  I thank the Caddo Parish residents who graciously served, often to the great sacrifice of their time and their own jobs. But your voluntary service to serve on juries for these criminal cases is the only way to bring justice to victims, and show criminals awaiting trial, and potential criminals at home watching the news or reading it on their phones, that there is a severe consequence to their decisions to commit crimes in our parish.   It is not only judges, the District Attorney, his assistants and the police that are necessary to bring justice, but equally citizens who serve on juries that allow our criminal justice system to function. Thus, your service on juries is one of the reasons our parish and city crime numbers continue to decline.

I want to thank Governor Jeff Landry for his public statement in support of me and the Caddo Parish District Attorney’s office.

His recognition of both the exemplary work that has been done by our office, as well as the realities of what needs to be done to support future prosecutions, is much appreciated.

Our collaborative work with Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith, Caddo Sheriff Henry Whitehorn, Caddo Parish Schools, the Caddo Parish Juvenile Court, and Volunteers for Youth Justice will continue to improve our community step by step, case by case, and child by child.

I look forward to our continued work with the stakeholders of Caddo Parish in combatting crime.

*

In August cases of note:

A teen arrested August 21, 2024, in connection with the murder of a Shreveport man was convicted of the slaying August 29 in Caddo Juvenile Court.

Anthony Brown Jr., 15, was found responsively guilty of manslaughter by Juvenile Judge Justin Courtney for the August 16, 2024, murder of Troy Ducote, 35, in the 3000 block of Boone Street in Shreveport.  Brown was arrested after SPD investigation revealed a group of juveniles taunted and attacked Ducote with rocks and then shot Ducote in the back as he fled. Ducote was found dead by neighbors. At trial, one adult neighbor witness bravely came forward and testified that he saw Brown fire a handgun in Ducote's direction. Brown was 14 at the time of the slaying and thus could not be transferred at the discretion of the district attorney under Louisiana law for prosecution as an adult. 

The Caddo Parish District Attorney's office charged Brown with second-degree murder and attempted to use a rare provision of Louisiana law to try Brown at 14 as an adult but was denied by the court at a pre-trial hearing. 

Brown has been remanded to the juvenile detention center and will return for sentencing September 29. 

Brown was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Audie Jones. He was defended by Sara Smith of the Public Defender's office.

* More than a decade after a Dallas man robbed a Shreveport woman and threatened to rape her, a unanimous Caddo Parish jury found him guilty as charged in a retrial that concluded August 21.

The three-woman, nine-man jury in District Judge Donald E. Hathaway Jr.’s court deliberated about an hour before returning its finding that in late August 2014, Joseph Martin Bryant, 50,  forced his way into the home of his female victim, who lived on Creswell Avenue in the Spring Lake neighborhood, after knocking on the door and offering to perform tree trimming services. Armed with a knife, he threatened to rape and kill her. But after about 15 to 20 minutes, he fled after taking about $120 in cash. The case remained unsolved for approximately one month.

Late that September, Bryant tried to rob another victim on Millicent Way, at the other side of Spring Lake, after he approached the woman, who was loading her grandchildren into a vehicle. He again offered to perform yard work, and when the woman declined, he asked for money, claiming he was hungry. When the woman gave him $5, he demanded her purse, claiming he had a gun. When she shouted for help, he ran off toward Line Avenue. The woman was able to provide a detailed physical description to police and he was apprehended later at Mall St. Vincent. The woman identified him as her assailant, and the detective working the case saw similarities his case and the earlier incident on Creswell. The victim from Creswell picked Bryant from a lineup and he was arrested. At his first trial, prosecutors introduced evidence that Bryant had been convicted in Texas in 1994 of a sexual assault and produced another witness who testified Bryant raped her in high school in Texas.

His first trial in 2017 resulted in conviction by a non-unanimous jury. His appeal in that case was ongoing in 2020 when the U.S. Supreme Court issued its Ramos v. Louisiana ruling that unanimous verdicts were necessary in criminal cases, requiring a retrial. After the state presented all of its evidence and rested its case that  Tuesday, Bryant claimed to have a medical condition and was taken to a local hospital. The trial resumed following the defendant’s release from the hospital, with the unanimous conviction soon after.

Assistant District Attorneys Jason Waltman and Christopher Bowman prosecuted the case. Harry Johnson defended Bryant.

The case was docket No. 327055.

* A Shreveport man convicted in June of a vicious drug-related murder must not only serve the mandatory life term in prison at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence, but also was sentenced to an additional decade in prison for violating the terms of a probation granted for an earlier murder attempt.

Lloyd Tremaine Cooks, 22, found guilty of second-degree murder June 11, 2025, was sentenced August 11 by District Judge Chris Victory for the June 25, 2022, slaying of  Jeremy “Ruru” Wyatt, 31. The two met at a local gas station for a marijuana transaction that turned into murder.

Cooks had previously been convicted June 1, 2022, of aggravated battery, a lesser charge than that originally lodged against him, for the attempted second-degree murder October 27, 2020, of Malcolm Simmons, in case No. 379968. Probation granted for this conviction was revoked.

Cooks was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Victoria Washington and Courtney Ray. He was defended by Michael Enright and Katie Miller.

The murder case was docket No. 390646.

* A man who shot and killed a childhood friend on a central Shreveport basketball court was found guilty of second-degree murder August 8 in Caddo District Court.

Andre Deshun Gladney, now 22, but who was 18 at the time of the March 7, 2022 shooting, was found guilty unanimously by the six-man, six-woman jury in District Judge Ramona Emanuel’s court after deliberations that lasted less than an hour.

Taurean Coleman, 19, Gladney’s friend since middle school, was shot and killed on the basketball court at Anderson Island Park in Shreveport. Gladney surrendered to Shreveport Police later that day, claiming he acted in self-defense.

Jurors learned that Coleman was shot eight times, with six shots fired into his back. DNA on the gun matched Gladney and blood on Gladney’s jacket matched Coleman.

The lead detective on the case testified at trial about his investigation and his interview with Gladney, who eventually admitted to shooting Coleman, but claimed it was because he believed Coleman would kill him, despite being unarmed with no immediate access to a weapon. The jury rejected the self-defense contention.

Gladney was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Senae D. Hall and Courtney N. Ray. He was defended by Eric Johnson and Rachel Bays.

The case was docket No. 387915.

* A Shreveport man convicted in July of beating a fellow prisoner to death in the Shreveport city jail in 2022 will serve the rest of his natural life in prison, a Caddo District judge has ruled.

Andrew Drew Adaway, 37, was convicted July 22, 2025 of fatally beating Bobbie Young June 3, 2022. District Judge Donald Hathaway Jr. imposed the mandatory sentence August 7. The sentence must be served at hard labor without the possibility of probation, parole or suspension of sentence.

Adaway killed Young, 72, who had been arrested for various drug offenses and had been brought to the jail shortly before Adaway was booked for misdemeanor simple assault. Adaway was compliant during the booking process but protested when jailers attempted to place him in a group cell following booking.

Once in the cell, Adaway attacked Young, striking him in the head with a closed fist more than a dozen times.  Paramedics transferred Young to Ochsner LSU Health, where surgery failed to relieve pressure on his brain caused by the beating. Young succumbed to his injuries and died June 20, 2022.

Assistant District Attorneys Christopher Bowman and Jason Waltman prosecuted Adaway, who was defended by Harry Johnson and Hillary Hileman.

The case was docket No. 389905.

***

The Caddo Parish Grand Jury returned two true bills against one man in its session that ended August 19.

The first indictment, docket No. 408992, charges Connor Johnston Lyons, 19, with second-degree murder in connection with the May 23 stabbing death of his mother, 55-year-old Lara Lyons, as she slept in her Blanchard home. The slaying happened in the 6000 block of Double A Drive.

The second indictment, docket No. 410921, charges Connor Lyons with two separate criminal counts, battery of a police officer and resisting an officer.

Connor Lyons remains in custody in Caddo Correctional Center, where he was booked the day of the slaying, with his bond set at $2 million.

At your service,

James E. Stewart Sr.

Caddo Parish District Attorney