Conviction, sentence in kidnapping of 8-month-old stands

Published 3:37 pm Monday, December 23, 2024

The conviction and 10-year sentence of a man accused of kidnapping an 8-month-old baby in 2020 will stand. Marcel Dugar — who is neither the father nor the legal guardian of the child — took the boy from his home on Dec. 21, 2020. Dugar had previously been in a relationship with the child’s mother and had lived with her and her two children in a Lake Charles apartment.

The child’s mother testified that Dugar would get agitated when the children’s father wanted to spend time with them. After an argument between the child’s father and Dugar in the beginning of December, she said she told Dugar to move out of the apartment. She said Dugar did not pay rent, any of the bills, and was not listed on the lease.

She said when she asked him to leave he threatened violence.

“Basically, if I wanted him to leave, I would have to pay him $2,000 or he would hurt me or my kids,” she told jurors.

She said two days before the argument between Dugar and the children’s father, she had mentioned to Dugar that the children’s father wanted to spend Christmas with them.

“And I remember we were sitting in the parking lot just parked at the car wash, and he grabs me by my head and just starts like punching me in my head at the car wash,” she told jurors. “And I was crying, and then we ended up leaving, driving back to my house, and he done it all over again. And my baby was in my hands and he was punching me so hard to where (the baby) dropped out of my hands two or three times because of how hard he was punching me.”

She said after the argument between the two men, she told Dugar to not come back. Later, he sent her expletive-laced text messages telling her he was on his way back and she had better be ready when he got there.

She said she fled to a neighbor’s house and called the police.

The woman’s grandmother — who was at the apartment when Dugar arrived — testified that when Dugar knocked on the front door she told him he was not welcome and she would not be letting him in. The grandmother said the knocking turned to banging, the banging turned to kicking. She said he then tried to kick in the back door. After failing, he went to the kitchen window, broke it, and climbed through, knocking down blinds, curtain rods and two television sets.

The grandmother said Dugar went down the hall looking for his ex-girlfriend and when he didn’t find her, he picked the baby up off the floor.

“He didn’t say a word to me,” the grandmother testified. “He didn’t say nothing. He just looked like he wanted to hurt somebody.”

She said he walked out of the apartment with the child, leaving the car seat and the diaper bag.

The ex-girlfriend told jurors she did not return to her apartment until Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived. While with the deputies, she said she received a text message from Dugar that contained a picture of the baby with paper in his mouth.

CPSO Det. Lt. Casey Lafargue testified video surveillance was recovered from the apartment complex, showing Brown throwing his weight against the apartment door and later fleeing in a vehicle. The text message was sent about 10 minutes after the child was taken.

Dugar was later apprehended on Clover Street and the child was recovered.

Lafargue said though Dugar told police initially that the child was choking and then that he was taking the child to Walmart for a toy, Dugar passed multiple Walmart stores and health care facilities without stopping at any of them.

Dugar was unanimously convicted of unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling and simple kidnapping. He was sentenced to six years for the unauthorized entry conviction and ten years for the kidnapping, with the sentences to run concurrently.

In his appeal, Dugar claims the evidence introduced at trial was insufficient to convict him of simple kidnapping beyond a reasonable doubt. He said he consistently cared for the child when he lived with him and that he was keeping the child’s mother informed by sending the photo with the paper in the child’s mouth to show he was keeping the baby from choking. He said he should be “seen as a Good Samaritan and not a kidnapper.”

The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal ruled the claim to be without merit, given the phone data and timelines.

Dugar also claimed his 10-year sentence for simple kidnapping is unconstitutionally excessive.

The court pointed out that since Dugar is a habitual offender — he was previously convicted of armed robbery and first-degree robbery — the trial court did not abuse its discretion in imposing the maximum sentence.

Dugar “took a mother’s baby boy after forcefully entering the home,” the court stated. “Given he did so after having been imprisoned and paroled for prior felony convictions, his 10-year sentence for the simple kidnapping of an infant boy does not shock our sense of justice and is supported by the record.”