Donnie Cayer's sisters ask public not to forget as they wait for David Westmoreland trial

Donnie Cayer's sisters does not want him to be forgotten, standing at the spot on Horseshoe Drive where the 43-year-old father of two was killed three years ago while bicycling with his two sons.

Cayer died on May 1, 2021, after he was hit by a motorist who left the scene but later was arrested. The sisters, Hope Wise and Cynthia Cayer, say the perceived lack of urgency in the criminal justice system about the case makes them think people have forgotten about their brother.

David Brett Westmoreland, a 63-year-old retired Louisiana State Police trooper and a juvenile probation officer for the 9th Judicial District Court, was arrested by the Alexandria Police Department on the day of the crash on charges of vehicular homicide, first-offense DWI, hit and run and limitations on passing bicycles.

He was formally charged with vehicular homicide and felony hit and run. His trial is set for Nov. 18, according to online Rapides Parish Clerk of Court records, and will be presided over by retired Judge Jimmie Peters, who was appointed by the Louisiana Supreme Court.

All 9th Judicial District Court judges recused themselves because Westmoreland worked for the court. Cayer doesn't understand why the Rapides Parish District Attorney's Office didn't recuse itself in the case, too.

It's been difficult for the sisters to see Westmoreland's trial continued numerous times. Although Cayer knows of the new November trial date, she said she's yet to be officially notified about it.

The last information she was told was that Westmoreland's attorney, Mike Small, filed a motion to reset a March trial date because he had a conflicting trial in another parish. The November date now is the fourth time the trial has been set.

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When asked to describe their brother, both sisters teared up.

"The first word that comes to my mind is sweet," said Cayer, her voice shaking. "I think everybody would say sweet."

"Caring," said Wise.

"He would do anything for anybody," said Cayer. "A little too much."

"He had a good heart, cared for others, wanted to take care of people," said Wise.

"He was a really, really good dad," said Cayer.

His two sons, now 14 and 19, are "doing really well," she said. She shares custody of the them with their mother, who was estranged from Cayer at the time of his death.

Wise called their progress "amazing," considering what they've been through. "They're thriving. Both of them are," she said.

Cayer said both are active and do well in school. She said they would ride their bicycles in the Horseshoe Drive area every evening with their dad so they could feed the ducks and geese that live on Bayou Robert in the area between Philadelphia Baptist Church and the Landmark subdivision.

On the day of wreck, one of the boys had peddled away to join some friends he had spotted nearby. But the other was with his father when he was hit.

An off-duty Rapides Parish Sheriff's deputy and his wife saw the crash and stopped to help. The deputy began CPR and soon was helped by a nurse practitioner who stopped at the scene.

Cayer said the nurse practitioner called her from the scene and has been in touch several more times to ask if she could place a roadside memorial known as a "ghost bicycle" at the site.

She paused before sharing what else the woman told her, that "they tried to do CPR or something, but that he was dead."

Mourners couldn't see Donnie at his funeral service, she said.

"I don't know how he could have been going that fast. He was just coming from that house," she cried, motioning across Horseshoe Drive.

Cayer said she is upset at how often the trial has been pushed back. And she said it's not only an issue in her brother's case, but for other families who are waiting for justice for their loved ones, too.

She said she is scared that, the longer the trial is delayed, people won't be concerned about what happened, about her brother's death.

Cayer wants to remind everyone what happened "and that he has a family that still cares."

Wise said the experience makes teaching right and wrong to her own two children and her brother's more difficult. "What's the point in that if this is ... if nothing's going to come of it?" she asked. "What are we showing them as a society?"

Westmoreland lived not too far from Cayer, and she said it was hard to see him living his life as she and her family coped with her brother's death.

"People with much less offenses are in jail," she said. "I just feel like ... I just feel like ... I'm very shocked."

Wise said the prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Kelvin Sanders, has talked to the family in the past.

The sisters hesitated when asked how they would react if a plea agreement were to be proposed. Cayer said she'd be "very disappointed" in that, and Wise agreed.

Cayer said the family is thankful to those who stopped to help after the wreck and for those who donated to the GoFundMe set up in the days after Donnie's death to support his sons. And she said she's angry that Westmoreland didn't stop, calling him a "trained professional" who should have known better.

But there have been moments of kindness in the ordeal. Cayer said a cross remembering her brother kept popping up in different spots around the site, but it wasn't the family placing it.

One day, Cayer got a Facebook message from a woman who asked her if she was removing it. She said no, and the woman told her some of Donnie's friends were responsible for placing the cross.

And she asked Cayer if she minded that they were doing it.

"Absolutely I don't mind," she said. "It's amazing that people still care that much."

Cayer called the gesture "really sweet" and said she gave them her blessing. It was another reminder of how their brother touched people during his life.

"I knew that Donnie never met a stranger. He was just so sweet and friendly, but it's been ... gosh."

She said she meets people all over, like her mortgage lender, who tell her they knew her brother, that they donated to the GoFundMe or how he was so nice.

"He just touched so many lives," said Cayer. "I mean, I knew he was sweet and happy-go-lucky, but my goodness. He knew a lot ... everybody in town, smiled and talked to everybody."

But she also said Donnie's friends did some research later and found that such roadside memorials are illegal. While the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development states it won't remove such memorials on state roads unless complaints are received, they can be removed if it creates a safety hazard or impedes roadside maintenance.

On May 1, the small white cross with Donne's name and dates of birth and death sat near an AT&T substation. "We will never forget you" was written on it.

A few days later, it and another cross placed by the sisters were gone.

"I just feel like the biggest thing is that I just don't want people to think we've forgotten him," said Cayer, her sister agreeing with her. "And that we want our family and other families to see justice here."

This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: Sisters of Donnie Cayer remember him 3 years after Alexandria wreck