Death sentence for killer of cleaner
In September of 2002, the community of
Slidell, LA, was shocked to discover that local drycleaner
Louis Ferrari, 61, had been shot and killed in his own kitchen.
Ferrari, a popular community figure, was
especially well-loved by the employees of his plant, Corporate
Cleaners. They described him as “kind, hardworking and
giving” which made the violent incident even harder to
come to terms with.
However, some sense of closure for the
brutal incident was achieved in mid-March when it took a jury
only four hours to convict Jesse Montejo, 25, of first degree
murder for pulling the trigger.
Montejo reportedly displayed no emotion
as the unanimous verdict was read, bringing to culmination a
four-day trial in state District Judge Donald Fendlason’s
courtroom in Covington, LA.
During the penalty phase of the trial,
the jury sentenced Montejo to death by lethal injection.
Montejo will receive his formal death row sentence on May 3 by
Judge Fendlason, who noted that only a governor’s pardon
or a successful appeal can overturn the ruling.
Upon hearing the guilty verdict,
Ferrari’s family members exchanged hugs and smiled. Widow
Patricia Ferrari — who had been married to her husband
for 39 years — was seen shaking hands and thanking
detectives and prosecutors as they left the courtroom.
During the trial itself, Assistant
District Attorney Ronnie Gracianette offered a detailed
narrative of what police believe happened on the day of the
murder. He used video excerpts from Montejo’s statements
to punctuate his case.
In one clip, Montejo claimed that Jerry
Moore, a former Corporate Cleaner employee, told him that
Ferrari kept stacks of hundred dollar bills from the cleaning
store in two safes inside his home.
Moore is still awaiting his own trial on
a first-degree murder charge for allegedly planing the murder.
Ferrari, who liked to give people second chances, had kept
Moore on his staff even after he purportedly attempted to
burglarize his car.
Eric Gai, Montejo’s stepbrother,
has also been implicated in the crime. He was charged with
second-degree murder; police claim he was circling
Ferrari’s neighborhood at the time of the crime.
According to Gracianette, Montejo
surprised Ferrari when he arrived home with a bag of groceries.
At that point, Gracianette indicated that Montejo likely
pressed a revolver into a sofa and fired a warning shot, trying
to scare Ferrari into turning over his “big stash”
of money.
Gracianette believed things escalated
when Ferrari showed Montejo that he kept only Treasury bills in
the safes.
“Montejo sees him as that
‘f-ing’ man who’s worth no more than a
month’s rent and a killer sound system,”
Gracianette told the jury, making a passing reference to the
manner in which prosecutors believe Montejo spent the cash he
found in Ferrari’s car.
For the defense, attorney Jim Williams
claimed in his closing statement that authorities continued to
interrogate Montejo alone after he requested a lawyer and
forced him to make a false confession as well as an apology
letter to Patricia Ferrari.
Williams also claimed that police
didn’t submit a shirt and hair for testing that could
have cleared Montejo’s name.
The jury, however, still chose to render
a guilty verdict. They quickly came to their decision just as
Judge Fendlason had called an evidentiary hearing to determine
if prosecutors would be allowed to discuss a battery charge
Montejo incurred while in jail. Deputy Justin Brown testified
to being hit in the head after he pointed pepper spray at
Montejo, who refused to return to his cell during a lockdown.
Fendlason allowed prosecutors to
introduce the testimony during the penalty phase of the trial.
While arguing in favor of the death
penalty, Assistant District Attorney Scott Gardner played taped
911 excerpts to demonstrate the brutality of the crime.
On the tape, Patricia Ferrari screamed to
dispatchers that something terrible had happened and that blood
was everywhere. “Please help me!” she said.
“Oh, this is the most awful! I just lost my mother. I
can’t deal with this!”
A writer for the Slidell Sentry-News
reported that Gardner stopped the tape and urged jurors to
imagine such a tragedy occurring in their own life. At that
point, it was noted that Montejo lowered his head and stared at
a bare wall.
Montejo’s father, Ceasar, took the
stand to provide testimony for his son’s defense.
“Please do not put my son for death,” he said.
“I believe my son was caught in an unfortunate moment and
he did not mean to do this. Mr. Ferrari was the kind of man to
give second chances. We should honor Mr. Ferrari’s
compassion and apply this to my son. If I could, I would trade
my life for his. Please forgive everything that
happened.”
Defense Attorney Jim Williams will be
filing an appeal on the case.
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