Alexandria man gets 20 years for 2021 murder; trial for man accused in baby's death reset
An Alexandria man received a 20-year prison sentence Monday after pleading guilty to manslaughter in the July 2021 shooting death of another man.
The trial for Marcus Deion Johnson, 30, was to have started Monday, but he decided instead to plead guilty to the murder of 35-year-old Anthony Pierre Russell Sr.
Russell was shot on July 26, 2021, on Lakeside Drive in Alexandria. Johnson was arrested the next day on a second-degree murder charge. He was formally charged with manslaughter in October 2021.
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Johnson was sentenced by 9th Judicial District Court Judge Greg Beard, who also presided over another homicide case on Monday.
Devonte Ellis Stafford, 26, is facing a charge of first-degree murder in the January 2020 death of 9-month-old Dontae Leon Francis.
He was arrested by the Alexandria Police Department on a first-degree murder charge after the department was called to a home in the 2300 block of Taft Street for an unresponsive baby. The boy was pronounced dead after he was taken to a hospital.
Stafford was formally charged with manslaughter in June 2020, but the case went before a grand jury in October 2020. The members indicted him on the first-degree murder charge.
Stafford had filed a motion to quash on his own, even though he is represented by attorney Chris Guillet. A hearing was called to determine how to proceed.
He also filed a motion for discovery that Beard denied.
On Monday, Guillet told Beard he would not adopt Stafford's motion to quash. Stafford withdrew the motion.
His trial, which was supposed to start this week, was reset for Oct. 28. A hearing on a motion filed by Rapides Parish Assistant District Attorney Kelvin Sanders was continued until Aug. 19.
That motion seeks to keep character evidence against the forensic pathologist who performed the baby's autopsy, Dr. Christopher Tape, out of the trial.
Criminal charges from 2001 and a 2022 civil lawsuit settlement against Tape were uncovered during a dispute with the St. Tammany Parish coroner he succeeded after his election. According to news reports, Tape was arrested in Albuquerque, N.M., on six counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor.
The indictment against him later was quashed, and Tape was not convicted of any crime, according to the motion.
The motion states the charges and settlement are not related to Stafford's case and that information only could be used to attack Tape's credibility. The motion seeks to have all of that information ruled inadmissible at trial.
This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: Man gets 20 years in Alexandria shooting death of Anthony Russell Sr.
