May 2019 Press Releases

District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro’s office on Thursday (May 30) secured a murder indictment against a Tulane University student accused of stabbing a relative to death inside a French Quarter apartment in February. Morgan Rothe-Skinner was charged with the second-degree murder of 52-year-old Daniel Magrini in the three-count indictment handed up by an Orleans Parish grand jury. Rothe-Skinner faces a mandatory…

District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro’s office on Thursday (May 30) secured a murder indictment against a convicted felon accused of fatally shooting a man three months ago near the end of a second-line parade in Central City. Norman Lee was charged with the second-degree murder of 34-year-old Clarence Mitchell in a three-count indictment handed up by an Orleans Parish grand jury.…

District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro’s office on Thursday (May 30) secured the indictment of a man linked by DNA test results to the kidnapping and multiple rapes of an Indiana woman celebrating her birthday in the French Quarter last October. Kenneth Barber was charged with second-degree kidnapping and three counts of first-degree rape of the 43-year-old victim in the indictment handed…

District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro’s office on Thursday (May 30) announced it had secured an indictment charging a Mississippi man with violent offenses against three different women in New Orleans since 2014. William McDonough, 46, was charged May 29 in a four-count indictment handed up by a special grand jury. The Natchez resident was charged with the second-degree kidnapping of a…

District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro commended the judges of Orleans Parish Juvenile Court for increasing their direct involvement in detention decisions under a new policy unanimously approved and announced Wednesday (May 29). “Until our city assesses honestly the scope of our juvenile crime problem and its effect upon our citizens, we cannot effectively reduce it,” Cannizzaro said. “Encouraging the coddling of…

District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro’s office on Monday (May 20) secured the guilty plea of a former New Orleans East middle school music teacher who inappropriately touched a young boy in his classroom. Christopher Winston pleaded guilty as charged to indecent behavior with a juvenile under the age of 13. Criminal District Judge Camille Buras sentenced Winston, 30, to 44 months…

District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro on Thursday (May 16) expressed condolences for the murder of Mrs. Zelda Townsend last week and proposed an eight-point plan to combat New Orleans’ juvenile crime problem. Here is the complete text of his press conference speech: I’ve asked you here today because last week’s senseless murder of Zelda Townsend cannot be lost to the passage…

District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro’s office on Thursday (May 16) secured a murder indictment against a man accused of fatally shooting another man three months ago in New Orleans East. Quintel Morgan was charged with the second-degree murder of 20-year-old Jawan Bradley in the indictment handed up by an Orleans Parish grand jury. Morgan, 26, faces a mandatory lifetime prison sentence…

District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro’s office on Thursday (May 16) secured a first-degree rape indictment against an Arkansas man accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a New Orleans hotel in March. Yohon Vernon, 44, faces a mandatory lifetime prison sentence if convicted of the charge. Vernon was arrested on March 2, 2019, the same day a 23-year-old woman reported to…

District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro’s office on Thursday (May 16) secured a murder indictment against a man accused of fatally shooting another man behind an Algiers apartment building in January. Michael Roberts Jr., 27, is charged with the second-degree murder of 29-year-old Lawrence Varnado and with obstructing justice in a homicide investigation in the two-count indictment handed up by an Orleans…