Daigle sentenced to life in prison at hard labor

Billy J. Daigle, 42, of Houma, avoided a possible death sentence last week by pleading guilty to the first-degree murder of Lafourche Parish sheriff’s deputy Martha Woods-Shareef.

District Judge Jerome Barbera sentenced Daigle to life in prison at hard labor for running over Woods-Shareef on Aug. 20, 2008, after attempting to rob a Chackbay convenience store.

Prior to last Wednesday’s sentencing, Daigle told Woods-Shareef’s family in a barely audible voice, “I’m sorry that all of this happened.”

Daigle initially upheld his not guilty plea in Barbera’s court on June 26. However, his lawyers Kerry Cuccia and Ray Bigelow, members of the state Public Defense Board, began discussing a plea agreement with the Lafourche Parish District Attorney’s Office in the weeks since the plea.

According to the agreement, Daigle vowed to plead guilty to first-degree murder if the state withdrew its intent to seek the death penalty. Daigle agreed to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole, probation or a suspended sentence.

“In this case, you have to consider that the evidence of the defendant’s intent to kill is only circumstantial and is based on our accident reconstruction experts,” District Attorney Cam Morvant said after last Wednesday’s proceedings. “In light of that, we were willing to take the risk of a trial out of the equation and accept the certainty that this man will die in prison.”

Morvant said he accepted the deal for two reasons: Woods-Shareef’s family agreed and because it is appropriate based on the evidence.

The deputy’s family sat in the first two rows of the court during last week’s proceedings. Her husband, Rashid Shareef; daughter, Marsiah Woods-Conner; son-in-law, Kevin Conner Jr.; and sister Ida Hunt, listened intently as Barbera questioned Daigle.

Relatives said the only basis for agreeing to the lesser sentence was that Woods-Conner is expecting a child in the coming month. The family worried that the stress of the trial could impact her pregnancy.

While clutching her husband outside of the courthouse, Woods-Conner said, “We agreed as a family that it was OK for the district attorney to accept the plea agreement because, right now, with me being pregnant, I didn’t want to bring new life into the world while going through a trial to take someone’s life. I didn’t want to bring my baby into the world with hatred in my heart.”

Morvant said last week’s plea deal accomplished his major objective – ensuring Daigle served time for killing a sheriff’s deputy.

“Ultimately, it was my decision alone whether to go ahead with a plea agreement,” he said. “But in this case, I felt it was very important to involve Martha Woods-Shareef’s family in all the plea discussions.”

Reliving the incident

Deputy Woods-Shareef, a 15-year veteran with the sheriff’s office, was patrolling the Chackbay area around 2:30 a.m. on Aug. 20, 2008, when she responded to a possible burglary in progress at Nocko’s Discount Store in Chackbay.

According to sheriff’s office reports, Woods-Shareef and the store’s owner, Billy Chiasson, confronted Daigle inside and outside of the convenience store.

Woods-Shareef radioed a dispatcher that she had stopped Daigle inside the store. A piercing scream followed, and the next voice heard over the deputy’s radio was Chiasson alerting police that Woods-Shareef had been injured.

He gave a detailed description of the green 1997 Ford pickup truck that fled the scene and the direction it headed toward La. Highway 308.

Authorities said a state police trooper intercepted the truck 20 minutes after the incident. State Police Troop C spokesman Trooper Gilbert Dardar Jr. reported that the trooper tried to confront Daigle but he sped off. The trooper was able to fire several shots at the truck.

Daigle led state police and sheriff’s deputies on a high-speed chase that ended with Daigle striking a tree along La. Highway 1, south of Lafourche Crossing, and jumping into Bayou Lafourche, swimming across to La. Highway 308 to evade arrest.

A massive manhunt was formed to find Daigle. It included several law enforcement agencies from a five-parish radius, spanning Terrebonne, Jefferson, St. James the Baptist and Assumption parishes.

Both sides of the highway were closed for several hours during the search. Police apprehended Daigle around 6:45 a.m. that same morning. He was hiding underneath a house on La. 308 near where the truck was ditched.

Once arrested, Daigle was taken to Louisiana State Police Troop C for questioning, then transported to the Lafourche Parish Detention Center.

Sheriff Craig Webre decided to transfer Daigle to St. Charles Parish jail as a precaution.

In Barbera’s courtroom, Daigle initially pled not guilty to first-degree murder. He was also initially charged with attempted first-degree murder of Louisiana State Police Trooper Corey J. Brunet, simple burglary of Nocko’s Discount Store and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.

Daigle had a two-decade criminal history

Daigle’s criminal history dates back two decades to the late 1980s. His most recent conviction, prior to the Woods-Shareef case, was in March 2008 when he was arrested for a felony theft in Houma that carried a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.

However, he was allowed to plead guilty to unauthorized use of a movable and sentenced to 100 days in the Terrebonne Parish Jail. He was released on June 26, 2008, less than a month before Woods-Shareef’s murder.

Lafourche Parish authorities arrested Daigle for first-degree murder after he shot Keith Prestenbach in 1986 in what Webre described as a “road rage” incident. The Houma man later pled guilty to negligent homicide and was sentenced to five years in prison.

His next arrest came in 1992 when he was charged with attempted murder in Winnfield Parish. Lafourche authorities are still seeking information on whether Daigle was convicted.

Daigle was arrested again in 1997 in Valdosta, Ga., for armed robbery. He never stood trial in Georgia because he was arrested in Louisiana on an outstanding warrant. Webre said Georgia authorities opted not to extradite Daigle and he spent the next seven years in prison in Louisiana for an unrelated crime, according to court documents.

In 2005, he had a three-month span of domestic-abuse battery arrests in Terrebonne Parish.

“When you look at his criminal history and his propensity for violence,” Webre said, “you can’t help but feel that somewhere in the criminal justice system we let a dangerous predator operate and that something like this was inevitable.”

He said Woods-Shareef’s death was the second worst day of his career at the helm of the sheriff’s office. The first came in July 2003 when LPSO Detective Chaney Champagne and Sgt. Kurt Harrelson were killed in a car crash while en route to a call.

Webre was unable to attend last week’s hearing because he was away on official business in Destin, Fla. However, he was aware of the plea agreement between the defense attorneys and the Lafourche Parish District Attorney’s Office.

Although the sheriff was in complete support of the decision, he said he would like nothing better than to see Daigle be put to death for his actions.

“I think he is a sociopath that has no conscience,” Webre said during a telephone interview. “Looking at his criminal history, Daigle has made that very clear on several occasions. But, I respect the criminal justice system. The decision was not mine to make.

“I have to honestly say that if I was in the D.A.’s position that I would have done the same thing,” he added. “The major factor is that a full-fledged trial ran the risk that the death penalty would not have gone down and Daigle could have gotten a much lesser sentence than life in prison.”

Family piecing their lives back together

Woods-Shareef leaves a devoted husband; daughter; two sisters, Ida Hunt and Edith Scobey, and five brothers, Andrew Woods, Clifton Woods, Edison Woods, Rev. Paul Woods and Warren Woods.

Hunt read victim impact letters from the family in court last Wednesday. Woods-Conner said in her letter that her mother was everything to her. “She was my mother and my best friend. Her life was cut too short. I thought she would always be here for all the days of my life.”

Hunt and Scobey wrote that Woods-Shareef, who was the youngest of the three siblings, was their rock. Her brothers wrote that their baby sister was an inspiration to all. Her pastor, the Rev. Thomas Williams of Morning Star Baptist Church, said he has a void in his congregation without Woods-Shareef.

Rashid Shareef said that he does not think the family will ever get over the loss of his wife. But, he said by the grace of God, the family would be able to forgive Daigle for taking their loved one.

Daigle said in open court that he was sorry for what happened. Shareef said, “To hear someone say they’re sorry is a good thing. And, if he really means it, then it’s between him and his Maker.”

Billy J. Daigle, 42, of Houma is escorted out of the Lafourche Parish Courthouse Annex Wednesday after receiving life in prison at hard labor sentence for the death of Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s deputy Martha Woods-Shareef. * Photo by KEYON K. JEFF