Months after Kayla Giles found guilty in his murder, family remembers Thomas Coutee Jr.
Four years ago, Thomas Coutee Jr.’s parents raced to Coliseum Boulevard in Alexandria to find their worst fears were true − their son had been shot.
Coutee died on the Walmart parking lot that Sept. 8 in 2018, shot once in his chest by his estranged wife, Kayla Giles, as the pair met for a child swap on their daughter’s second birthday. Giles’ two older daughters from previous relationships were getting into Coutee’s truck when he was shot.
Coutee, 30, was picking them up so the girls could go to his daughter’s birthday party that had been scheduled at Chuck E. Cheese.
Giles was sentenced to life plus 30 years in prison in January after a Rapides Parish jury found her guilty of second-degree murder and obstruction of justice.
On Thursday, Coutee’s family and friends gathered at the spot to remember him. Among them was the lead detective in the case, William Butler, who watched while standing apart from the group.
Thomas Coutee stood on a ladder to reattach a cross to the light pole that has become a memorial to his son since the shooting, covered with messages written in silver. The original pole accidentally was knocked down months ago by an 18-wheeler, and Coutee spent hours at the store so he could purchase it.
Denise Laborde Durbin offered a prayer as the group held hands and circled the pole. She knew Coutee Jr. at Glenmora High School when she was a school nurse and his cross-country coach.
“Thank you so much, Lord, for the light of Thomas and for allowing each of us to know him and be blessed by knowing him,” she prayed. “I know that his life produced great fruit in the time he was here.”
She asked for help so people could release any hatred they held even though she said it’s hard to understand his death. After Durbin finished her prayer, the group released purple balloons that signified the fight against domestic violence.
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“All for you, baby!” shouted Coutee’s mother, Cathy Pearson, as the balloons floated away.
Coutee hid a heart of gold behind his tough exterior “because he didn’t want you to really know, but I’d call him on it and that little grin,” Durbin said later, laughing as she used a finger to trace a smile.
“He couldn’t hide it.”
She said he was compassionate and kind, too, and the news of his death hit her hard.
“I’ve never cried so loud and so hard as when I received that news,” she said. “I was just devastated.”
This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: 4 years after murder, family and friends remember Thomas Coutee Jr.
