Kyle Joekel, found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder in the 2012 ambush shooting deaths of two St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff's Office deputies, was given a death sentence by a jury late Sunday morning.
Joekel, 35, had little reaction to the decision at the heavily guarded St. John Parish Courthouse in Edgard, ending what had been an impassioned trial that came more than seven years after deputies Brandon Nielsen and Jeremy Triche were killed in an early morning shootout at a LaPlace trailer park.
It took the jury less than 30 minutes to convict Joekel on the murder charges Friday, with a similarly short period of deliberation needed Sunday to give Judge J. Sterling Snowdy its death penalty recommendation.
“There was total chaos and hell caused by the actions of the defendant,” prosecutor William Dieters told the jury during the state’s closing statement. “The defendant coldly executed the deputies and now begs for mercy. That’s not fair.”
During the weeklong trial, prosecutors argued to the sequestered jury of Rapides Parish residents — chosen there because of how well-known and emotional the case is in St. John — that Joekel was a willing member of an anti-government cabal that operated out of the Scenic Riverview trailer park in LaPlace.
Through much of the trial, prosecutors specifically pointed to witness testimony that Joekel stood over Nielsen, who was injured from an earlier round of shooting, and fatally shot him at point-blank range with an AK-47. “I cannot imagine the cruelty to do something like that to somebody,” Dieters said.
Nielsen and Triche were among five deputies who were at the trailer park before 5 a.m. Aug. 16, 2012.
Even earlier that morning, off-duty Deputy Michael Scott Boyington, who was working a security detail at a refinery, was the victim of a drive-by shooting that left him wounded.
Boyington had been shot by someone in a truck, which deputies believed may have fled to the trailer park. They would later find the truck in a wooded area near the trailers.
Surviving deputies testified that Joekel and Terry Smith — the so-called leader of the trailer park's band of “sovereign citizens,” whom the FBI labels as “domestic terrorists” — were uncooperative and tried to run from deputies, leading to both of them being taken down and handcuffed.
That’s when both prosecutors and defense attorneys said Brian Smith, Terry Smith’s son, took an AK-47 and started firing at deputies — striking Jeremy Triche, Nielsen and Jason Triche, who is not related to Jeremy.
Brian Smith is also accused of firing on Boyington earlier in the morning and is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the Nielsen and Jeremy Triche killings, but he’s so far been ruled incompetent to stand trial and remains in a state mental hospital.
Jason Triche testified that although he was injured, he was able to return fire on Brian Smith, hitting him and causing him to flee. Jason Triche then drove himself to a hospital in Deputy Charles “Chip” Wale’s vehicle, which arrived after Brian Smith finished shooting.
But Wale testified it was as Jason Triche was driving out of the trailer park that shooting started again, as Joekel had escaped deputies during the first melee and picked up the AK-47.
Wale said shots came toward him and Jeremy Triche, who was lying injured in his vicinity.
Before he was able to return fire, Wale said, he saw Joekel stand over Nielsen, who was closer to Joekel, and fire from point-blank range — killing the deputy. Wale then returned fire and struck Joekel, ending the morning shootout.
Chanel Skains, who was married to Terry Smith at the time, also said she saw Joekel kill Nielsen. Jeremy Triche was still alive after the second round of shooting, Skains said, but died before help could arrive.
Prior to the guilty verdict, Joekel’s attorneys had argued that Brian Smith had been the only shooter that morning — with Joekel even testifying Thursday that he never fired a shot. “I’ve been charged with a crime I didn’t commit,” Joekel said.
But his attorneys were no longer making that case when it came to their closing argument against the death penalty Sunday, instead saying Joekel was only mimicking the Smiths’ behavior as he looked for acceptance after an “isolated” upbringing in rural Nebraska.
“What you don’t do is you don’t inflict more trauma. You don’t say ‘Brandon Nielsen, Jeremy Triche — I’m going to kill in your name,’” defense attorney Dwight Doskey said. “You simply don’t need to kill Kyle Joekel. The law doesn’t require it, and common sense doesn’t require it.”
Joekel would have been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole if the jury had not opted for the death penalty.
But outside the courthouse Sunday, Nielsen's and Jeremy Triche’s families said the death penalty was the only appropriate justice in this case.
“He killed my son. An eye for an eye, he needs to die,” said Edie Triche, Jeremy Triche’s mother.
Gabrielle Nielsen — Deputy Nielsen’s oldest daughter — also applauded the jury’s decision, saying that even though the trial overall was “bittersweet,” following the verdict, “I feel nothing but joy right now.”
Though the jury decided on the death penalty, Snowdy will be the one to officially hand down the sentence. A sentencing date has not been set.
With the jury's vote for capital punishment, Joekel is the first person to be sentenced to execution in St. John Parish since 2000 and will become the 69th person on Louisiana’s death row, according to the Department of Public Safety and Corrections.
The last time a death sentence was carried out in Louisiana was more than a decade ago.
Source: nola.com, Nicholas Reimann, February 9, 2020
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
