Rapides Sheriff's Office ordered to return 1974 car to man after charges dropped

Melissa Gregory, Alexandria Town Talk
·2 min read
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A Rapides Parish judge on Tuesday ordered a car returned to a man accused in a decades-old cold case after the charges against him were dropped.

Leo Laird was back before 9th Judicial District Court Judge Greg Beard with his attorney, George Higgins III, in an attempt to retrieve his 1974 burnt orange, two-door Pontiac GTO nine months after charges of first-degree murder, first-degree rape and aggravated kidnapping were dropped.

The skeletal remains of Donna Gayle Brazzell were found by a hunter in a wooded area of Gardner in November 1980. Charges against a man arrested in the case were dropped in September 2021.
The skeletal remains of Donna Gayle Brazzell were found by a hunter in a wooded area of Gardner in November 1980. Charges against a man arrested in the case were dropped in September 2021.

He was arrested on those charges by the Rapides Parish Sheriff's Office on Aug. 12, 2019, about five years after another man sent investigators a letter that implicated them both in the 1980 death of 18-year-old Donna Gayle Brazzell.

Her remains were found in November 1980 by a hunter in a wooded area in Gardner. She remained unidentified until a tip from her grandmother led to a positive identification in July 2019.

Laird was indicted by a Rapides Parish grand jury in February 2020, but Higgins ripped apart the case during an August 2021 hearing in which a detective testified there was no DNA connecting Laird to Brazzell and no evidence showing that she had been the victim of a kidnapping or a homicide.

Higgins also hammered on the credibility of the man who wrote the letter implicating him and Laird, Gary Haymon. He was incarcerated on unrelated charges when he wrote to officials.

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Haymon still is serving time at Louisiana State Penitentiary, according to online records.

At the end of the hearing, Higgins said the case against Laird should be dismissed or go back before a grand jury.

The sheriff's office didn't immediately respond when asked Tuesday afternoon about the status of the investigation into Brazzell's death.

This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: Court orders car returned to man after charges dropped in Donna Brazzell cold case