BREAKING: Death penalty in Daigle case
Published 7:14 pm Tuesday, July 19, 2022
After one hour of deliberations, the jurors in the penalty phase of Kevin Daigle’s first-degree murder conviction unanimously agreed Tuesday night to a death penalty sentence.
Daigle was convicted in 2019 of fatally shooting Louisiana State Police Trooper Steven Vincent in the face when the officer tried to help him on the side of the road on Aug. 23, 2015.
A unanimous jury gave Daigle the death penalty for Vincent’s murder four days after his conviction, but the state and defense worked out an agreement in which the guilty verdict would stand but the penalty phase would be redone because of allegations a juror wasn’t qualified to serve.
“I’d like to thank the jurors for delivering what I thought was justice,” Calcasieu Parish District Attorney Stephen Dwight said after the verdict was read. “They listened to the evidence and they came back with the death penalty, which I think is the appropriate response to the circumstances.”
Daigle is “an animal,” Dwight said.
“What he did on that day was horrible and horrific, and this is the proper justice,” Dwight said.