GUILTY LA - Jacquelin Nieves, 29, & two daughters slain, Lockport, 4 Nov 2012

David Harley Brown, 35, of Houma, is accused of stabbing to death Jacqueline Nieves, 29; Gabriela, 7; and Izabela, 20 months, on the second floor of their Lockport apartment Nov. 4, 2012, as the husband and father, Carlos Nieves Jr., slept on the floor below.

Brown is also accused of the sexual battery of Jacqueline and Gabriela Nieves, according to documents read aloud in court Thursday morning, in addition to the attempted murder of Carlos Nieves Jr. and the aggravated arson of their apartment. A fire was set in the apartment after the killings, investigators said, though the damage was minor.

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Deputies arrested Brown on charges stemming from a separate violent crime that allegedly took place the same night as the murders, at an adjacent apartment.

He's accused of breaking into a unit and attacking a resident.

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Proecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Brown was originally scheduled to stand trial Sept. 29, but that date has been changed to April 20.

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Brown is set for trial April 4.

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Prosecutors have agreed to allow attorneys for a man charged in the Nov. 4, 2012, stabbings of a Lockport woman and her daughters to have experts conduct DNA and fingerprint analyses of certain pieces of evidence.

David Brown, 38, of Houma, is set for trial Sept. 12 on first-degree murder charges in the deaths of 29-year-old Jacquelin Nieves and her daughters, 7-year-old Gabriela and 1-year-old Izabela. He is also accused of raping Jacquelin and Gabriela Nieves and setting the family's apartment on fire.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. State District Judge John LeBlanc is presiding over the case in Thibodaux.

Kerry Cuccia and his Capital Defense Project of Southeast Louisiana team are representing Brown. Cuccia filed a motion asking the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office Crime Laboratory, Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Office and Lafourche Parish Coroner's Office to release certain pieces of evidence for DNA analysis by the defense's expert.

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A man accused of killing a Lockport woman and her two daughters Nov. 4, 2012, now faces an additional felony charge of conspiracy to commit aggravated escape.

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Aggravated escape is "the intentional departure of a person from the legal custody of any officer of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections or any law enforcement officer or from any place where such person is legally confined when his departure is under circumstances wherein human life is endangered," according to state law.

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Prosecutors can use rape allegations against the defendant in a Lafourche Parish triple-murder trial despite his attorneys' assertion of a lack of physical proof of sexual assault, a judge ruled today.

David Brown, 38, of Houma, is charged with first-degree murder in the Nov. 4, 2012, stabbings of 29-year-old Jacquelin and her daughters, 7-year-old Gabriela and 1-year-old Izabela Nieves.

Brown is also accused of sexually assaulting Jacquelin and Gabriela Nieves and then setting the family's Lockport apartment on fire. He is no longer formally charged with rape or arson, but prosecutors plan to use those claims to justify seeking the death penalty if he is convicted in his trial starting Sept. 12.

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A line spilled onto the sidewalk today outside the Lafourche Parish Courthouse in Thibodaux as potential jurors waited to enter a packed courtroom for a triple homicide trial.

The suspect, David Brown, 38, of Houma, is charged with first-degree murder in the Nov. 4, 2012, stabbings of 29-year-old Jacquelin Nieves and her daughters, 7-year-old Gabriela and 1-year-old Izabela.

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For the second time, a judge has rejected defense attorneys' requests to move a triple-murder trial out of Lafourche Parish and bar the death penalty from being considered.

David Brown's trial is now in its sixth week of jury selection in Thibodaux, and attorneys are expected to make opening statements Saturday, though that schedule could change.

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Count one: first-degree murder. Guilty.

Count two: first-degree murder. Guilty.

Count three: first-degree murder. Guilty.

It took 12 jurors about an hour to return a unanimous verdict Sunday evening to convict David Brown, 38, of Houma, of the Nov. 4, 2012, slayings of 29-year-old Jacquelin Nieves and her daughters, 7-year-old Gabriela and 1-year-old Izabela, in Lockport.

Attorneys questioned over 20 witnesses and presented over 200 pieces of evidence throughout the week.

A penalty phase in which jurors will decide if Brown should be put to death is set to begin Monday.

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Two days after they convicted David Brown on a first-degree murder charge in the Lafourche Parish courthouse, a jury voted to sentence the child-killer to death.

After a short deliberation last Tuesday the jury opted for the death sentence.

In Louisiana death is performed by lethal injection. (. . .)

Last week’s decision by the jury marks the first time in 40 years that Lafourche Parish has sent a convict to death row.

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Today, District Court Judge John LeBlanc announced a sentence that hasn’t been handed down in Lafourche Parish for over 40 years.

“The defendant shall be sentenced to death,” Leblanc said in front of a packed courtroom.

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“We waited a long time to get to this point where we could finally have him sentenced,” Russell said. “It’s been a long time coming. Everyone’s been working hard to get to this day, and we will keep on working. There are a lot of things that have to happen as far as motions that need to be filed by the defense. Unfortunately, there were a lot of delays in this particular case. We had hoped it would have been done a lot sooner but because of those delays, it took a long time.”

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Moments after a judge formally sentenced David Brown to death, the Lafourche Parish prosecutor read a statement from the victim's family.

"We are now, to this day, still searching for what has been lost. I, personally, was not finished talking to my daughter and grand girls. We were given a life sentence of pain and suffering the day a stranger brutally attacked those three, beautiful girls," read Kristine Russell.

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