PRIEST'S MURDERER FOUND GUILTY

From the Daily Comet:

A 33-year-old man is guilty of bludgeoning a priest to death in August 1992, a verdict that brings closure to a murder mystery that stumped police for 15 years.

A 12-member jury unanimously found Derrick Odomes guilty of second degree murder Thursday afternoon following a two-day trial.

Prosecutors argued that Odomes bludgeoned the Rev. Hunter Horgan to death Aug. 13, 1992, inside the priest's office in St. John's Episcopal Church in Thibodaux. Odomes, who was 14 years old in 1992, was arrested in September 2007.
....

District Judge John E. LeBlanc, who presided over the trial, ruled last year that Odomes can't be sentenced if convicted of the slaying because he was a juvenile at the time of Horgan's death.

But Odomes received a life sentence last week as a result of six felony convictions he has racked up in the 19 years since the alleged murder, ensuring he will face significant jail time regardless of the outcome of the murder trial.

The article reveals details which I never knew before and which I'd rather not know now, but there it is.

Pray for Fr Hunter Horgan's family and all who loved him, including the parishioners at St John's, that God will give them comfort, consolation, and the peace that passes understanding to keep their minds and hearts.

Pray for Derrick Odomes. Some won't like that I ask for prayers for Derrick, but Jesus said pray for your enemies. That is enough for me.

A TRAGIC START TO THE WEEK

From the Daily Comet:

The "devil" came to Thibodaux Sunday, Jesslyn Lirette said, and he did so in the form of the man she was with for 10 years. The devil, she said, took her "angel" away.

Jeremiah Wright, 30, Lirette's live-in boyfriend and the father of their child, 7-year-old Jori Lirette, is accused of killing the boy and dumping his dismembered body outside the West Seventh Street home the three shared.

Jori loved his father more than anything, Lirette said.

"He still killed him," she said. "He killed my baby."

I'm sick at heart and hardly have words for this story. If you read the entire article, it seems there were so many signs along the way that the family needed help, and had someone or some agency intervened, the tragedy may have been prevented.

Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

UPDATE: A further update from the Daily Comet, with more unspeakably gruesome details on the killing.

STILL WAITING AND PRAYING....

From the Thibodaux Daily Comet:

A man accused of killing a priest more than 18 years ago was sentenced to five years in prison Wednesday for intimidating a witness while serving time in the Lafourche Parish jail.

Derrick Odomes, 32, is accused of bludgeoning the Rev. Hunter Horgan to death in August 1992 inside the rectory of St. John's Episcopal Church in Thibodaux. Odomes was 14 at the time of the priest's death. He was arrested and charged with the killing in September 2007, though a judge ruled last year that he can't be sentenced if convicted because of his age at the time of Horgan's death.

Odomes was convicted of witness intimidation in late January following allegations that Odomes exposed himself to Haley Burkett, a Lafourche Parish jail guard, resulting in Odomes being charged with obscenity.

Burkett told the jury that Odomes threatened her in March 2010, months after she filed the obscenity charge, telling her he would come after her after he got out of jail.

“The victim was put in an untenable position and was unable to do her job by threat of violence,” said District Judge John Leblanc before handing down the five-year sentence.

Leblanc said his decision was the “only appropriate sentence” because of Odomes' “utter disregard for the circumstances” of his imprisonment.

When people speak of closure, I have to wonder if there is any such thing. That the authorities were able to determine from DNA evidence that Odomes is quite likely the alleged murderer of Fr Hunter Horgan all these many years ago, was a relief to the members of the church and to the entire community. But there is certainly no closure, at least so far as I am concerned. I'm relieved that an alleged murderer is off the streets, but the news keeps coming in. There will be a trial for the murder for which the alleged killer cannot be sentenced. There will very likely be appeal after appeal before the case comes to a resolution.

While the judge's ruling rules out prison time on the murder charge, Odomes has five prior felony convictions and two outstanding felony charges — theft and obscenity — that could land him in jail for decades.

So we wait. And in the meantime, I pray for all who love Fr Horgan, and I pray for Derrick Odomes, and I pray that justice will be done.

UGANDAN LGTB ACTIVIST MURDERED

Jim Burroway at Box turtle Bulletin reports that David Kato Kisuule, LGTB activist in Uganda, was murdered.

David Kato was a spokesperson for Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) and one of the plaintiffs (or applicants) in the successful lawsuit seeking a permanent injunction against the Ugandan tabloid Rolling Stone (no relation to the U.S. publication of the same name). Kato was one of three applicants who had been named by the tabloid under a headline tagged “Hang Them!”

Few details are available a this time.

Lord, have mercy!