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Featured Photograph: Defense attorney Pride Doran leaves the courtroom Monday night. (Photograph by Bobby Ardoin.)

BOBBY ARDOIN
Editor/Consulting Writer

Closing statements in a 2016 double murder case that occurred in the Plaisance area, are expected to be delivered by prosecutors and defense attorneys before a trial jury Wednesday morning in Opelousas.

Retired State District Judge Herman Clause who is presiding over the trial of Jamarcus McLendon, discharged jurors shortly after midday Tuesday.

However Clause also told jurors to be prepared to deliberate and perhaps face sequestration if a verdict cannot be reached late Wednesday.

Lead prosecutor Alisa Gothreaux and defense attorney Pride Doran each indicated early Tuesday afternoon that they decided to rest their cases and no further testimony on either side would be necessary.

Lead prosecutor Alisa Gothreaux exits the courtroom Monday night. (Photograph by Bobby Ardoin.)

McLendon is accused of two counts of first degree murder in connection with the Sept. 24, 2016 shooting deaths of Nakia Ramer and Shawn Parrish on a rural road off La. 167.

Destiny Jones and David Miller were also booked on murder charges related to the deaths of Ramer and Parish, according to published stories written in 2016.

Trial testimony for McLendon, who did not testify, began Jan.16 and concluded Wednesday morning as Gothreaux and Doran questioned witnesses over cell phone records allegedly connected to the incident.

Family members brought framed photographs of Ramer and Parish with them into the courtroom on Monday and Tuesday.

Ramer was 21 and Parish was 19 at the times of their deaths, according to court records entered in connection with the case.

McLendon, the son of former Opelousas Police Chief Martin McLendon, was originally arrested following a Sheriff Department investigation and booked on two counts of second degree murder for the deaths of Ramer and Parish, court records show.

Those charges were later amended, said court records, when McLendon was indicted by a St. Landry Parish grand jury on two counts of first degree murder.

Miller, a 2016 newspaper story indicates, turned himself in to authorities on Nov. 16, 2016 and was booked on two counts of being a principal to first degree murder.

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