Laurent - Links Only

[Grande]

Posted on Thu, Jan. 10, 2008
LEO LAURENT CHARGED
'Everything he said was lies'
By J.R. WELSH
jrwelsh@sunherald.com

http://i28.tinypic.com/1zcpmir.jpg

HANCOCK COUNTY --Months of uncertainty in a high-profile murder case ended Wednesday when Leo Laurent was booked for the murder of his wife, with authorities saying they had evidence strong enough to put him away for good.

"I feel I can take 11 morons who can't even read and write, and I can convince them" of Laurent's guilt, said Kenny Hurt, chief investigator for the Hancock County Sheriff's Department.

Laurent, 30, is charged with killing 29-year-old Brandi Hawkins Laurent. She had been officially listed as a missing person since August until her body was discovered Nov. 10 at a crude, remote gravesite in the Fenton community.

If Laurent is convicted, the murder charge could bring life in prison. He was also charged with three misdemeanor counts for what Waveland police said was a bogus assassination attempt he reported on his own life last month.

Laurent had told deputies his wife left their rural home at midnight Aug. 3 after they'd argued. In a written statement, he said she had been using drugs and left home with no money, phone or transportation, wearing a shirt, flip-flops and shorts.

Throughout the case, Laurent has insisted his wife was a drug user who was killed by drug dealers she could not pay. He recently told the Sun Herald he was conducting an independent hunt for the killers.

"Everything he said was lies," Hurt said Wednesday.

The Laurents had two daughters, ages 12 and 2. According to statements Laurent made to reporters, the 2-year-old was at home the night Brandi Laurent was last known to have been alive at the couple's FEMA trailer off Fenton-Dedeaux Road. That would place the child at the murder scene.

"The murder happened in Fenton at the residence," Hancock County Sheriff Steve Garber said after Laurent was booked.

Laurent has two daughters by a previous marriage who live with grandparents. Garber said the 2-year-old also is in safe custody. The 12-year-old lives with her natural father.

Before he was booked with murder, Laurent had already been jailed in Pearl River County on a warrant issued in connection with an unrelated embezzlement case. He is scheduled to appear Friday in Justice Court in Kiln on the murder charge. The case then goes to a grand jury, Garber said.

The murder case heated up this week when investigators took Laurent from the jail to the couple's home in Fenton on Monday. Hurt said that trip had been "very helpful" in developing charges.

Although they said Laurent had been cooperating with their investigation, authorities declined to say whether he has given a confession. Many other facts of the case also remain unknown to the public.

Andre Fizer, the case's lead investigator, would only say Wednesday, "The investigation came to a point where an arrest could be made."

Also Wednesday, Waveland Police Chief James Varnell charged Laurent with illegally possessing a firearm, discharging a weapon in the city limits, and filing a false police report. On Dec. 7, Laurent had told police two black men tried to shoot him as he walked on the beach.

Varnell said tests concluded Laurent had fired the shot himself. At the time, Laurent also told officers if they could catch his attempted killers, they could also solve his wife's murder.

That now appears to be accurate, the police chief said: "We did find out who fired the shot at Mr. Laurent, and we did solve two cases at once."

http://www.sunherald.com/278/story/290848.html

[Pauli]

LEO LAURENT CHARGED
'Everything he said was lies'

By J.R. WELSH
jrwelsh@sunherald.com

HANCOCK COUNTY --Months of uncertainty in a high-profile murder case ended Wednesday when Leo Laurent was booked for the murder of his wife, with authorities saying they had evidence strong enough to put him away for good.

"I feel I can take 11 morons who can't even read and write, and I can convince them" of Laurent's guilt, said Kenny Hurt, chief investigator for the Hancock County Sheriff's Department.

Laurent, 30, is charged with killing 29-year-old Brandi Hawkins Laurent. She had been officially listed as a missing person since August until her body was discovered Nov. 10 at a crude, remote gravesite in the Fenton community.

If Laurent is convicted, the murder charge could bring life in prison. He was also charged with three misdemeanor counts for what Waveland police said was a bogus assassination attempt he reported on his own life last month.

Laurent had told deputies his wife left their rural home at midnight Aug. 3 after they'd argued. In a written statement, he said she had been using drugs and left home with no money, phone or transportation, wearing a shirt, flip-flops and shorts.

Throughout the case, Laurent has insisted his wife was a drug user who was killed by drug dealers she could not pay. He recently told the Sun Herald he was conducting an independent hunt for the killers.

"Everything he said was lies," Hurt said Wednesday.

The Laurents had two daughters, ages 12 and 2. According to statements Laurent made to reporters, the 2-year-old was at home the night Brandi Laurent was last known to have been alive at the couple's FEMA trailer off Fenton-Dedeaux Road. That would place the child at the murder scene.

"The murder happened in Fenton at the residence," Hancock County Sheriff Steve Garber said after Laurent was booked.

Laurent has two daughters by a previous marriage who live with grandparents. Garber said the 2-year-old also is in safe custody. The 12-year-old lives with her natural father.

Before he was booked with murder, Laurent had already been jailed in Pearl River County on a warrant issued in connection with an unrelated embezzlement case. He is scheduled to appear Friday in Justice Court in Kiln on the murder charge. The case then goes to a grand jury, Garber said.

The murder case heated up this week when investigators took Laurent from the jail to the couple's home in Fenton on Monday. Hurt said that trip had been "very helpful" in developing charges.

Although they said Laurent had been cooperating with their investigation, authorities declined to say whether he has given a confession. Many other facts of the case also remain unknown to the public.

Andre Fizer, the case's lead investigator, would only say Wednesday, "The investigation came to a point where an arrest could be made."

Also Wednesday, Waveland Police Chief James Varnell charged Laurent with illegally possessing a firearm, discharging a weapon in the city limits, and filing a false police report. On Dec. 7, Laurent had told police two black men tried to shoot him as he walked on the beach.

Varnell said tests concluded Laurent had fired the shot himself. At the time, Laurent also told officers if they could catch his attempted killers, they could also solve his wife's murder.

That now appears to be accurate, the police chief said: "We did find out who fired the shot at Mr. Laurent, and we did solve two cases at once."
http://www.sunherald.com/278/story/290848.html

[Pauli]

Posted on Sat, Jan. 12, 2008

$1M bond set for Hancock Co. man charged with wife's murder

The Associated Press

KILN, Miss. --A $1 million bond has been set for a Hancock County man charged with the murder of his wife.

Justice Court Judge Ricky Adam on Friday also appointed Bay St. Louis attorney Brian Alexander to represent Leo Laurent and scheduled Laurent's next court date for Feb. 8.

Laurent was charged this week with murdering 29-year-old Brandi Laurent at their home in the Fenton community near Kiln. He had reported his wife missing in early August. Her body was found by horseback searchers at a shallow grave about a mile from their home on Nov. 10.

Laurent, 30, was a youth soccer coach who had been married to his wife for about 10 years. The couple had two children.

The bond is a technicality, since Laurent is being held without bond in Pearl River County Jail in connection to an unrelated embezzlement case.

Alexander said he intends to seek a bond reduction for Laurent at a subsequent hearing. The case is now headed to a grand jury for a murder indictment.

"They will probably fast-track this, which means four months instead of the usual seven, eight or nine" for an indictment to be handed down, Alexander said.
http://www.sunherald.com/306/story/295806.html

[Pauli]

Laurent pleads guilty to filing false report about attempt on his life

By J.R. WELSH

WAVELAND --Leo Laurent pleaded guilty this afternoon to a charge that he fabricated an attempt on his own life while he was under investigation for the murder of his wife.

Waveland Municipal Court Judge Frank Wittmann III accepted Laurent's plea of guilty to false reporting of a crime, a misdemeanor. He ordered Laurent, 30, to pay a $605 fine and make $5,000 restitution to the City of Waveland for costs incurred in its investigation.

On the night of Dec. 7, Laurent had called for police assistance in Waveland, saying two black men had fired a shot at him from a nearby car as he walked on the beach. Police Chief James Varnell later said crime lab evidence revealed Laurent had fired the shot himself from a pistol officers found in his car.

At the time, Laurent was being investigated for the murder of his wife, 29-year-old Brandi Hawkins Laurent. He was later charged with murder and remains in Pearl River County Jail under $1 million bond in that case.

Brandi Laurent's body was found in November at a crude gravesite not far from the couple's rural home. She had not been seen since Leo Laurent reported her missing in early August.

Laurent originally faced three charges in the Waveland incident, but the case was whittled down to a single charge. Defense attorney Nicholas Haas and city prosecutor Patricia Willis agreed to the guilty plea Thursday.

Wittmann declined to give Laurent credit for jail time served, as recommended in the plea bargain. Payment of the fine and restitution is to begin within one month after Laurent is released on bond in his various cases. He also faces unrelated embezzlement charges in Hancock and Pearl River counties.
http://www.sunherald.com/news/breaking_new...ory/355993.html (http://www.sunherald.com/news/breaking_news/story/355993.html)

[Pauli]

Investigator: Laurent loaded wife in garbage can, buried her

By J.R. WELSH

KILN --A sheriff's investigator testified Friday that Leo Laurent admitted to loading his deceased wife into a garbage can, driving into the woods and burying her body last August, while the couple's 2-year-old daughter was in the car.

During a Justice Court preliminary hearing, the graphic testimony by Hancock County Sheriff's Investigator Andre Fizer stunned a courtroom audience that included family and friends of Brandi Hawkins Laurent. The body of the 29-year-old mother of two was found in the countryside in November after she had been missing more than three months.

Fizer said Leo Laurent, 30, gave an oral statement to authorities in early January when he was in the Pearl River County Jail in an unrelated case. In that interview, he reportedly said his wife had died at their home after they argued and she had been using drugs. Laurent told officials he saw Brandi Laurent bleeding from the nose and mouth, and then, "she passed out in the utility room" of their trailer, Fizer said.

He said Laurent then admitted to loading his wife's body into a large garbage can with wheels and putting the can in his Ford Explorer. He then placed their daughter Peyton in the car, drove through the darkness to a clearing in a field about a mile away, and buried Brandi Laurent in a hole, Fizer said.

However, Fizer added that during another interview, Laurent told officials his wife had pulled a pistol and the weapon discharged when they tussled over it, sending a bullet under her breast and through her back. An autopsy did show signs of damage to the woman's ribs, but Brandi Laurent actually died after being strangled, Fizer said.

Other grisly details emerged during the hearing in a case that has riveted Hancock County since Laurent first reported that his wife disappeared into the night on Aug. 3 from their trailer home in the Fenton community.

The hearing concluded when Justice Court Judge Ricky Adam bound the case over to a grand jury. If indicted, Laurent will stand trial for murder. His attorney, Brian Alexander, said he intends to maintain his client's innocence. Adam also refused to lower a $1 million bond he had previously set for Laurent.
http://www.sunherald.com/news/breaking_new...ory/358253.html (http://www.sunherald.com/news/breaking_news/story/358253.html)

[Pauli]

Leo Laurent Murder Case Grand Jury Bound

Posted: Feb 8, 2008 05:09 PM CST
Updated: Feb 8, 2008 05:52 PM CST

The former youth soccer coach accused of killing his wife was back in court in Hancock County on Friday for a preliminary hearing on a murder charge.

Leo Laurent was brought through the back door of justice court wearing chains and cuffs, jail clothes and a bullet proof vest.

He's accused of killing his wife, 29-year-old Brandy Hawkins Laurent, whose body was found in a shallow grave last November, not far from the couple's home in the Fenton community.

Investigator Andre Fizer testified that Laurent told some seven different versions of what happened the night his wife died. Fizer says the autopsy found Brandi Laurent was strangled and the case will show her husband was the killer.

But one version of Laurent's alibi raises questions about a gunshot. He claims the two argued in their trailer home, they tussled over a handgun and she was accidentally shot. He admits to panicking, then burying her body in a nearby woods.

Investigators say there were traces of blood found at the trailer, along with a bullet hole through an inside wall.

That gunshot could well be the basis for Leo Laurent's defense.

"I think it's interesting that they don't believe his statement that she somehow died by gunshot, but they still used it to implicate him and sign an affidavit for her strangulation. So, there's a bunch of inconsistencies they have," said Laurent's court appointed attorney, Brian Alexander.

The sheriff says the case for the prosecution is solid.

"I'm just glad he did feel some remorse to come and start talking about the case. You know I'm glad the case is where it's at today. It's going to the grand jury. We feel very confident from there. We're going to put him in jail for a long, long time for murder," said Sheriff Steve Garber.

"It was an up and down case. And a lot of it was in the media and a lot of other stuff on the Internet and all. Really, it hurt the case somewhat because we had to go through all this evidence. Everything that come in, we had to weed through it," said Garber.

Brandi Laurent's mother was among the victim's friends and family in court Friday. An emotional Anita Moody had no comment about the testimony.

Leo Laurent is being held in the Pearl River County jail. His attorney asked that the defendant's one million dollar bond be lowered to a more reasonable $100,000. Judge Ricky Adam denied that request.

"Look, a death is a death. And that's an important thing. But a million dollars? This is not O.J. Simpson," said defense attorney Alexander.

He says his client "absolutely" maintains his innocence to the murder charge.

In making the motion for the lower bond, Alexander said Laurent was not a flight risk. He also told the court the defendant is being "picked on" in the Pearl River County jail.
http://www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp?S=7845670&nav=6DJI