Court looks at overturned conviction in 2013 disappearance

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana Supreme Court justices are weighing whether a jury was right when it convicted a man for his role in the kidnapping of Jessica Guillot, an Avoyelles Parish woman not seen since September 2013, when authorities believe she was kidnapped and killed after stealing cocaine from a drug dealer.

Guillot’s body has never been found. So, despite gruesome testimony from a woman who said she heard — but didn’t see — Guillot being choked and beaten, prosecutors have had to settle for kidnapping convictions of drug dealer Asa Bentley and four others.

One of those others was Chadwick McGhee, who was sentenced to life as a habitual criminal offender.

But Louisiana’s 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal overturned his conviction. “While the State may have proven the co-defendants had the intent and performed the actions which would constitute kidnapping the victim, it failed to prove that defendant was guilty of anything other than being in the same place as his friend, Bentley,” the appeals court said in its 2015 ruling.

Assistant Avoyelles Parish District Attorney Michael Kelly disagreed Monday as he argued the case at the Supreme Court on Monday. He noted that Bentley and McGhee were friends and that there was testimony that McGhee was with Bentley as he looked for Guillot. “He actually was part of the pursuit,” Kelly said of McGhee.

Defense attorney Paula Marx argued that there is no physical evidence linking McGhee to Guillot’s disappearance, and no testimony proving McGhee knew what was in store for Guillot.

“Guilt by association cannot convict Chadwick McGhee,” Marx said.

There was no indication when the high court would rule.

When it does it will be the latest development in a case that Avoyelles District Attorney Charlie Riddle says has tormented Guillot’s family. “From the beginning, the family has just been through horrible trauma,” Riddle said. Part of the pain comes from still not knowing when or if Guillot’s remains will ever be found.

Bentley is serving a 70-year sentence in the kidnapping.

Prosecutors said Bentley’s cohorts, including McGhee, had found Guillot and that she was in a car with them when Bentley arrived at a meeting point in a Dodge Durango.

Tamika Williams, a passenger in the Durango and a co-defendant in the case, cooperated with prosecutors and was released after the initial trials. She testified that Bentley dragged Guillot out of the car, threw her into the back of the SUV and climbed on top of her, an attack that continued as another defendant drove.

“She described hearing choking sounds and what sounded like someone being hit, but said that she did not see anything because she was texting her sister and did not look in the back. She stated that the sounds continued for about ten or fifteen minutes, that she heard the sound of glass breaking, and then smelled something funny, ‘like somebody went to the bathroom on their self,’” an appeal court record said.