Shooting of Jeremy Mardis

Background

Marksville is a small city with a population of 5,702 at the 2010 census, characterized by familiar relationships and interactions between locals. The city had a series of running conflicts between Mayor John Lemoine and several city officials over budgets. The conflicts reportedly started soon after Lemoine took office in 2009, when he called for several audits of the city court and recommended that the city council lower the budget, including the salary of Marksville Marshal (equivalent to a police chief in other jurisdictions) Floyd Voinche. Citizens have described the politics as "particularly intense and personal". Lemoine was also reportedly in conflict with the Marksville Police Department, which had three different chiefs during Lemoine's five years in office.

About three months prior to the shooting incident, Voinche's office hired several local police officers to work part-time in street patrols and purchased two used Ford Crown Victoria police vehicles for their use. The street patrols involved mostly making traffic stops and issuing citations. Before that, the local marshal office's jurisdiction had been limited to serving court papers. According to Lemoine, speaking after the shooting occurred, Voinche did not consult with the city about this expansion of his operations, including the hiring of full-time police officers. Lemoine had written at least one letter to the office of Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell, questioning the legal authority of Voinche's actions. Because state statute gives marshals the authority to enforce the law within their respective jurisdictions, street patrols and issuing tickets were considered to be encompassed in this authority.

Shooting incident

On the night of November 3, 2015, officers Derrick Stafford and Norris Greenhouse of the Marksville Marshal's Office attempted to stop a vehicle driven by Christopher Few. He had his son Jeremy Mardis with him in the front seat. After he and his fiancee Megan Dixon had an argument at a bar that evening, they had driven away in separate vehicles. She said that she saw him pass her, followed by a marked police car with two officers.

After Greenhouse and Stafford activated the patrol car lights Few failed to pull over, resulting in a two-mile car chase. At some point Greenhouse and Stafford called for backup, and two other officers responded. They ended the chase on a dead-end street by the entrance to the Marksville State Historic Site at the corner of Martin Luther King Drive and Taensas Street. One of the responding officers used his body camera to record the confrontation.

Greenhouse and Stafford allegedly fired eighteen rounds of ammunition into Few's vehicle at approximately 9:30 p.m. Few was struck twice, in the head and chest, despite having his hands in the air, according to police body-camera footage. Mardis was hit by five bullets, also struck in the head and chest. He was initially thought to have died instantly, according to the coroner for Avoyelles Parish. However, it is now known that six-year-old Mardis was alive for an additional seven minutes while lying in his father's truck.

Police officers involved

Three of the four involved officers worked both as police officers and as marshals. While in most of Louisiana marshals are authorized only to serve legal documents such as arrest warrants, in Marksville, deputy marshals were empowered earlier in 2015 to make discretionary arrests, "preserve the peace", and issue traffic tickets.

Officers who fired the shots

Norris Greenhouse Jr., 23, and Derrick Stafford, 32, are officers with the Marksville Police Department. Greenhouse was a reserve officer with Marksville and served as a deputy marshal for the nearby Alexandria City Marshal's Office; he had been on the force for one year.

Stafford was a lieutenant and shift supervisor for the Marksville Police Department, and an eight-year veteran of that Department. He was "moonlighting" as a deputy marshal at the time of the shooting. That night, Greenhouse and Stafford were working side jobs for the city marshal's office. They were two of several officers hired by the Marksville Marshal's Office about three months prior to the shooting.

At the time of the shooting, Greenhouse, Stafford and Marksville Police Chief Elster Smith, Jr., were the subjects of a federal civil suit for use of force. Stafford was the subject of five civil suits in Avoyelles Parish; Greenhouse was named in one of these. In addition, Stafford had been indicted in 2011 by Rapides Parish on two counts of aggravated rape but the charges were dropped in 2012.

Responding officers

Lieutenant Jason Brouillette, a 13-year veteran of the Marksville Police Department, and Sergeant Kenneth Parnell, a five-year veteran, responded to the backup call made by Greenhouse and Stafford. Parnell was wearing a body camera, which recorded at least part of the incident.

Brouillette and Parnell were placed on administrative leave following the incident. Investigators do not believe either of them fired their weapons.

Christopher Few

Christopher Few moved from Mississippi to the Marksville area in April 2014 to work as an apprentice riverboat captain and to be closer to his relatives. He was listed in critical condition on November 3. A family spokesperson said that bullet fragments remained in Few's brain and lung. His condition improved to serious by the following morning. As of November 9, Few was hospitalized in Alexandria, Louisiana, where his condition had been upgraded to fair. He was released from the hospital on November 13. Few and Mardis shared a home with Few's mother prior to the shooting. Body-cam footage reportedly shows Few had his hands up when he was shot.

Jeremy Mardis

Jeremy David Mardis (c. 2009 – November 3, 2015) was diagnosed with autism at the age of two. At the time of the shooting, he was in the first grade and attended Lafargue Elementary School in Effie, Louisiana. He had moved with his father to Louisiana from Mississippi the year before. Mardis' mother Katie Mardis, and his sister, still live in Mississippi. Christopher Few's fiancée Dixon described Mardis as an affectionate and intelligent child, and said that Mardis did speak, unlike some autistic children. Mardis and Few shared a home with Few's mother prior to the shooting. Mardis was in the front seat of Few's vehicle and wearing a seatbelt when they were shot. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

A funeral for Mardis was held on November 9 at Moore Funeral Services in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where his mother and sister live. He was buried in Beaumont Cemetery. His father was still hospitalized and unable to attend.

Investigation and prosecution

Charles Riddle, the district attorney for Avoyelles Parish, recused himself from the case because Officer Greenhouse's father is an assistant district attorney in his office. The office of the attorney general of Louisiana is prosecuting the cases of Greenhouse and Stafford.

Greenhouse and Stafford surrendered to police on the evening of November 6, and they were charged with second-degree murder and second-degree attempted murder. They were transferred on November 9 from a jail in Avoyelles Parish to Rapides Parish Detention Center #3 because, as the police said, the latter facility is "better equipped to isolate [Greenhouse and Stafford] from the general population". It is standard procedure to separate law-enforcement officers from non-law-enforcement inmates when they are incarcerated.

Investigation

Colonel Mike Edmonson of the Louisiana State Police began an investigation into the shooting. He said that the body-camera video recorded by one of the responding officers was essential to the officers being arrested. Other contributory evidence included interviews with the cooperating officers, 9-1-1 recordings, and unspecified forensic evidence. Legal analysts cited by The Advocate newspaper of Baton Rouge, Louisiana also attributed the arrests to the body-camera footage.

Ballistics tests showed that of the four responding officers, only Greenhouse and Stafford fired their weapons.

Although initial news reports said there was a warrant for Few's arrest prior to or after the shooting, the state police have said this was not true. In addition, Edmonson said that there was no evidence of a firearm inside Few's vehicle.

The Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Office of the United States Attorney, are participating in the investigation.

Few's fiancee Megan Dixon said that the police pursuit of Few may have been prompted by his running a red light or by the officers seeing an altercation she had with Few at a traffic light, when he approached her car and they had words. One police vehicle reportedly received damage caused by Few reversing into it.

Dixon also said that Few had encountered Greenhouse a month before the shooting. He threatened to hurt Greenhouse after the officer contacted Dixon, a former high school classmate, and went to the home she shared with Few. She said Few told Greenhouse, "Don't come to my home again, or I'll hurt you".

Gag order

Judge William Bennett of the Louisiana 12th Judicial District Court was assigned to the case and presided over the bail hearing on November 9. He issued a gag order that day, forbidding all parties, including police, victims, and witnesses, from discussing the case with the press. Media outlets had requested the Louisiana State Police to release public records with information about the case, but these requests were denied as a result of the judge's order.

Bail hearing and bond posting

A description of the body-cam video's contents was presented as evidence during the bail hearings, but the video was not shown. Bail was set at US$1 million for each officer. On November 24, Greenhouse's family posted bond and he was released. Stafford posted bail and was released in March; both men are under house arrest.

Trial dates

Stafford's trial began on March 13, 2017; Greenhouse's trial date was set for June 12, 2017. The judge had postponed these dates in order to allow the defense time to prepare, including for their use of expert witnesses.

Outcome

The jury found Stafford guilty of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter. Stafford was sentenced to forty years in prison, half of which would be served "without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence."

Days after Stafford's conviction, Christopher Few was himself jailed without bond in an unrelated matter. First arrested in an alleged domestic violence choking incident in the Moncla community, he was then held on warrants from St. Landry Parish regarding a theft investigation.