Defendant accused in fatal shooting of state trooper
Published 6:00 pm Wednesday, April 25, 2018
The Kevin Daigle trial, which was scheduled to begin April 30 in state district court, has been put on hold indefinitely after the state Supreme Court issued a stay Tuesday, making it potentially the fourth delay of this trial.
With still-pending hearings in the case, including a Jackson hearing and a recusal hearing as well as defense motions that are pending, everything has been halted until further notice from the court.
Several motions by the defense were expected to be heard by Judge Guy Bradberry on Monday but the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal put that hearing on hold after Daigle’s defense attorneys filed a document with the 3rd Circuit that morning.
The document, nearly 400 pages, focused on a decision by Judge Clayton Davis last week not to recuse Bradberry from the Daigle case.
Daigle’s defense team said it wanted Bradberry removed from overseeing the trial because Bradberry and Steven Vincent’s wife, Katherine Vincent, were friends on Facebook.
Prosecutors said although Vincent and Bradberry were Facebook friends, and acquainted through Vincent’s former employment as a supervisor with the juvenile probation system, they are not close friends.
In its response to the recusal motion by the defense, prosecutors said, in part: “Not a single case has ordered judicial recusal on grounds as flimsy and speculative as those presented by this defendant in a last-ditch effort to continue his fourth scheduled trial date of April 30.”
The response went on to say that “Judge Bradberry and Katherine Vincent have never been alone together in a courtroom, a car, or elsewhere; they have never had dinner or lunch together, or ever socialized; Bradberry is friends with other people in the legal community, and was especially cautious not to do anything on social media associated with this case when he became assigned to it; and the timing of the recusal motion is highly suspicious, since it was based on a business association well-known to the community, to the defense, and which has never been a recusal basis.”
Additionally, its response said “the presumption is that a trial judge is impartial. The defendant who files for recusal has the burden of establishing that he is not.”
Monday’s hearing had also been scheduled to consider seven other defense motions that have been filed, including one to limit law enforcement presence in the courtroom and another to continue the trial court proceedings.
Defense motions appeared to indicate that Daigle may suggest at trial that he was so inebriated at the time of Vincent’s shooting he should not be found guilty.
Because of a change of venue earlier granted in the case, when it does go to trial a jury will be selected in Benton in Bossier Parish and jurors will be brought here for the trial.
The trial is expected to take place in Courtroom A in the old Calcasieu Courthouse to provide more seating.
If found guilty, Daigle would face the death penalty.
