Boyce man found guilty in murder of 19-year-old Courtney Coco of Alexandria

A Rapides Parish jury took 90 minutes to find a Boyce man guilty Monday in the 2004 murder of 19-year-old Courtney Coco, drawing soft cries from her family and supporters.

David Anthony Burns, 46, faces mandatory life in prison after his conviction on a charge of second-degree murder. His sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 28.

Coco's body was found Oct. 4, 2004, in an abandoned building in Winnie, Texas. Leads grew cold, and an indictment against Burns didn't come until April 2021.

Coco's mother, Stephanie Belgard, had said during deliberations that she was placing her faith in the jurors. As she left the courthouse, she cried and spoke of them.

"I want to tell them thank you for looking at this with open eyes and ears and their hearts and doing the right thing, giving us justice. I wish I could hug them all," she said as she stood between her mother, Ina Laborde, and daughter, Lace Evans.

Burns' defense attorney, Christopher LaCour, was so shocked by the verdict he initially told 9th Judicial District Court Judge Mary Lauve Doggett that he couldn't think about setting a sentencing date.

When Doggett suggested Nov. 21, he said he would not schedule it on Burns' birthday.

As he was leaving, LaCour − flanked by his co-counsel Willie Stephens − called the verdict "a gut punch."

He said there were many inconsistent statements made during the trial and thought Coco's family factored into it.

"I think this was a sympathy verdict, and I think some of those jurors had their minds made up already," he said, insisting that the case was "truly tried for political reasons."

Rapides Parish District Attorney Phillip Terrell denied that, saying his office didn't bend any sort of pressure in handling the case, either political or from Coco's family or media.

He said he was not surprised by the verdict, even though he knew the case was "extremely difficult." He credited and thanked the prosecutor who tried the case, Rapides Parish Assistant District Attorney Hugo Holland, and his co-counsel and fellow Assistant District Attorney, Johnny Giordano.

"We did this in what we felt was the right way. We investigated it the right way," he said.

Holland said this was his most difficult murder case in 34 years.

"Even though nobody put any pressure on me as to when we were going to indict or how we were going to proceed, I put the pressure on myself because I wanted to deliver for Courtney," he said. "I'm glad we could do that."

Both the state and defense told jurors during closing arguments earlier Monday afternoon that a lot of pieces still were missing from the story surrounding Coco's death.

The difference is Holland contended there was enough presented during testimony to convict Burns, while LaCour told jurors he's convinced her cause of death will never be known.

Holland told jurors to remember Occam's Razor, the principle that states, basically, that the simplest explanation is almost always the best.

He told them to keep that in mind when LaCour tried to tell them Coco's death wasn't a homicide, that those who said Burns confessed to them were lying and that there are other suspects.

He said the people who came forward to say Burns confessed to them were separated by time and space. He pointed to one witness who said Burns told her Coco had been wrapped in plastic and then to testimony from Coco's grandmother, Ina Laborde, that she noticed her granddaughter's shower curtain missing while cleaning the house after her death.

Holland said he doesn't know what happened at Coco's home on the night she died, but he said he had some guesses. He theorized that Burns, who was living with Coco's sister Lace Evans, left their home after an argument and went to Coco, who Evans testified was having an affair with Burns.

Did Coco end their affair? Did they fight over a sexually transmitted disease that testimony showed Coco had? Holland said he didn't know, but it couldn't have been pleasant.

And he said it's after her death that the assertion of the defense's sole witness, pathologist Dr. Stephen Norman, fails.

Norman testified he believed Coco died from an overdose of alcohol and Tramadol.

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If what Norman said is true, why wouldn't anyone have called 911 or leave Coco's body at her home, Holland asked.

"The pieces that we do have point to two inescapable conclusions, that Courtney Coco was murdered and that David Burns did it," he said.

LaCour said everyone connected to the case has different stories. He also questioned why Evans wasn't facing charges since two of those who said Burns confessed to them also said Evans was involved.

"It is truly a whodunit. And guess what?" he asked. "That question has still not been answered."

He questioned the credibility of multiple state witnesses and said he didn't have to answer a challenge that Holland issued to prove Coco's death was anything but a murder. He said Burns is innocent and that nobody can place him at any scene connected to the case.

LaCour said it's as if the state threw darts at a board when deciding how to try its case.

"This case is filled with doubt," LaCour said.

Under Louisiana law, the sentence for second-degree murder is life in prison without the possibility of parole, probation or suspension of sentence.

This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: Man found guilty in 2004 murder of 19-year-old Courtney Coco