Court hearing delayed for Rapides man accused in death of motorcyclist

A bond-reduction hearing for a Ball man arrested in a vehicular-homicide case was delayed until next week.

Leandra Tenell McNeal, 44, has not been formally charged in the June 20 crash that killed 20-year-old motorcyclist Kobe Bordelon of Alexandria. McNeal has been held in Rapides Parish Detention Center No. 1 since his Aug. 3 arrest with bail set at $300,000.

Kobe Bordelon, 20, died on June 28 after a hit-and-run wreck in Alexandria.
Kobe Bordelon, 20, died on June 28 after a hit-and-run wreck in Alexandria.

McNeal was arrested by the Alexandria Police Department on a felony vehicular-homicide charge.

The wreck happened at North Bolton Avenue and Enterprise Road, and police say McNeal fled afterward. The truck he was driving was found later that day in Ball. He also was arrested later that day.

He left jail July 6 after posting a $100,200 bond but was arrested again after the vehicular-homicide warrant was issued on July 21.

In other cases on Monday:

∎ A 22-year-old Alexandria man was sentenced to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter.

Z’Various Deandre Mason’s second-degree murder trial was to have been held this week. Mason had been arrested by the Alexandria Police Department in the November 2019 shooting death on Louisiana Avenue of Jordan RaySean Compton, 20.

∎ The second-degree murder trial of Keisha Renee Green, 32, was postponed until Dec. 5.

Green is accused of killing 1-year-old Khalid Boyd “while engaged in the perpetration of cruelty to juveniles,” reads an amended indictment against her from December 2021.

She was arrested by the Alexandria Police Department in January 2020 after the child was found dead at a Monroe Street home.

Rapides Parish Assistant District Attorney Johnny Giordano told 9th Judicial District Court Judge Chris Hazel that he and Green’s attorney, Phillip M. Robinson, had been working on the case for the past several weeks but it wasn’t ready for trial.

The trial had been set for this week. A status conference has been set for Oct. 24. Her new trial date is Dec. 5, and Giordano said he did not want to draw out the case beyond that.

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∎ Dayshawn Trevon Reed, 23, had his trial set on a charge of manslaughter after Rapides Parish Assistant District Attorney Brian Mosely told Hazel he and defense attorney Robinson could not reach a plea bargain agreement.

His trial was set for March 6, 2023.

Reed and three others are accused in the July 29, 2021, shooting death of Ka’Ron Ya’Lik Bennett, 23. Bennett was shot in the 2900 block of Broadway Avenue and died two days later.

All the defendants have been formally charged with manslaughter. Trevon Lamar Smith and Fredrick Wayne Batiste Jr. have pretrial conferences later this month, but Joseph Regis Richardson pleaded guilty on Monday to a reduced felony charge of being an accessory after the fact.

Richardson had a three-year prison sentence suspended and was placed on three years of supervised probation. He also will testify against any of the other defendants, if called.

∎ The manslaughter trial of Kyle Lucien Ryland was continued until April 17, 2023.

Ryland, 28, is accused of shooting 56-year-old Steven Wayne Saucier after the two got into a verbal argument in the area of Hog Lake Road and La. Highway 454 in the Kolin area. Ryland was arrested by the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office on Dec. 9, 2019, the day after Saucier was shot.

He was arrested on a second-degree murder charge but was indicted on a manslaughter charge in November 2020.

His attorney, George Higgins III, told 9th Judicial District Court Judge Mary Lauve Doggett that he would have one more motion to file in the case. Doggett told him this would be the last continuance and that the April trial date was “firm.”

∎ Bail of $1 million was set for an Alexandria man indicted last month on a first-degree rape charge.

Israel Jermaine Williams, 39, was arrested by the Sheriff’s Office on 101 counts of first-degree rape, two counts of molestation of a juvenile and one count of issuing worthless checks for less than $1,000. The arrest came after a tip the previous summer from the Pensacola, Florida, Police Department about the possible sex trafficking of a juvenile, the department stated when announcing Williams’ arrest.

He was indicted last month on the single rape charge. A pretrial conference was set for Oct. 20.

Doggett denied a motion to release Williams for all bond obligations, but she drop bond obligations for all the other charges on which he had been arrested.

∎ A felony charge of resisting an officer with force or violence was dropped against a Lecompte man.

Raymond Jack had been arrested in April 2021 by the Lecompte Police Department, along with four other residents, after a complaint alleging the sexual abuse of two juveniles. The Rapides Parish District Attorney’s Office dropped all other charges without formally charging Jack, leaving only the resisting charge.

Jack rejected a proposed plea bargain in April, and his trial was set for Monday, but the state dropped the charge.

∎ Judge Doggett denied a bond reduction for Deon Francis Guidry because a previous request to do so already had been rejected.

Guidry is facing second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder charges in a Sept. 23, 2019, shooting that killed 21-year-old Arturo Dontavius White. The shooting happened in the Charles Park neighborhood around Welwyn Way and Wellington Boulevard after a chase that began at the Walmart on Coliseum Boulevard.

The shooting wounded another man. Police have said the parties had been involved in an ongoing dispute.

Guidry’s trial was set for March 6, 2023.

This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: Court hearing delayed for Ball man accused in motorcyclist's death