A 12-member jury in Iberville Parish deliberated for over three hours late into the night of May 12 and unanimously found Dionte Bracken (DOB 09/12/2000, of 57345 Cpl. Herman Brown, White Castle) guilty of one count of second degree murder and one count of attempted second degree murder.
According to District Attorney Tony Clayton, the victims, Jaion Knight and Deandre Brown, were sitting in Brown’s car when Bracken emerged from the darkness on August 20, 2020, opened the car door and started shooting, leaving very little opportunity for the victims to defend themselves. Knight was killed and Brown in injured in the shooting. Bracken was arrested the next day for the shootings.
Clayton commended the hard work of the jury in the three-day trial, saying, “They understood the case presented, and handed down justice for the families and the Bayou Goula community.”
He also praised the investigative work on the case. “I commend the work of the Iberville, Ascension, and Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Offices, along with the Louisiana State Police Crime Lab. They did a great job working this case and finding all the evidence across all these parishes,” stated Clayton.
Chad Aguillard, who is Clayton’s Chief of Trials, prosecuted this case along with Assistant District Attorneys Niki Roberts and Brilliant Clayton. Honorable Judge Alvin Batiste, Jr. presided over the case and set sentencing for Bracken on July 7, 2022.
Second degree murder carries a mandatory life in prison sentence, while attempted second degree murder carries up to 50 years in prison.
In closing, Clayton stated, “This senseless gun violence needs to stop and will not be tolerated in the 18th Judicial District. Put the guns down and work out your differences.”