Opening statements began Saturday morning in the penalty phase of Kevin Daigle’s first-degree murder conviction. Daigle was convicted in 2019 of fatally shooting Louisiana State Trooper Steven Vincent in the face when the officer tried to help him on the side of the road in 2015.

Calcasieu Parish Assistant District Attorney Charles Robinson told jurors — who are from Baton Rouge and were brought to Lake Charles for the hearing — Daigle “enjoyed killing Trooper Vincent.”

He “ambushed him in cold blood for no good reason,” Robinson said. “He ruined and then made miserable the final moments of Trooper Vincent’s life.”

Vincent, who had pulled Daigle over for suspicion of drunken driving near the corner of La. 14 and Fruge Road in the Hayes area, had just celebrated his 12th wedding anniversary when the attack occurred, Robinson said.

“Trooper Vincent’s last words were, ‘We’ll call the tow truck, get the truck out and maybe I’ll give you a ride,’ ” Robinson said. “He couldn’t see that Daigle had moved a sawed-off shotgun into his lap and was going to shove it right in his face.”

Daigle was on parole at the time of the shooting for his fourth felony arrest — arson for setting fire to his mother’s home — and had just come from killing his roommate, Blake Brewer, when Vincent pulled him over.

“Daigle used the same shotgun he killed Blake Brewer with to kill Trooper Vincent,” Robinson said. “After he shot Blake Brewer, he washed his own clothes and then rolled the dead man over to dig in his pockets to take his keys and steal his truck.”

Dash cam video presented Saturday from Vincent’s unit shows Daigle firing at Vincent then following him as Vincent stumbled to his vehicle. Daigle can be heard asking Vincent if he was still alive before calling him a “lucky bastard.”

“Kevin Daigle is guilty without a shadow of a doubt of first-degree murder of a police officer,” defense attorney Bruce Ugnanst said. “But he deserves to spend the rest of his life behind bars in Angola, not the death penalty.”

Ugnanst said Daigle would never have shot Vincent “if he had been sober,” saying Daigle’s alcohol consumption was four times over the legal limit and prior to getting on the road he had “smoked meth from a broken lightbulb.”

Ugnanst said Daigle has no memory of the event and “the first time he watched the video, Kevin cried.”

“Tragedy came to Trooper Vincent through no fault of his own,” Ugnanst said. “Rain falls on the just and the unjust alike. But that day Kevin had given up on life, hope and himself. The officer couldn’t have known how wounded, how broken physically and mentally Kevin Daigle was at that moment when he pulled him over.”

This story will be updated. Court is in recess until 1:30 p.m.

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American Press Executive Editor Crystal Stevenson is sending live tweets from the courtroom. Follow her on Twitter @CrystalAmPress