NEW ORLEANS — The Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office announced a plea bargain in a 2012 homicide investigation.
The attack happened on January 17, 2012 in the 3100 block of Oliver White Avenue in the Desire area. Four people were shot, and one of them died.
Prosecutors arrested and charged two suspects with murder. On Friday, one of them, 31-year-old Jonathan Alexander, pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Alexander will serve 30 years in prison without the possibility of parole or probation.
The man who was killed in the case was named Gerald Barnes, Jr. Prosecutors say Barnes’ family approved of the plea agreement.
The second suspect in the case is identified as Ryan Miner. Prosecutors say they offered Miner a plea agreement with a 35 year prison sentence but he rejected it. They say the offer is no longer on the table and a trial date for Miner will be set in the days ahead.
“Sadly, this case is an all-too-familiar reminder of how lives on both sides can be easily ended or destroyed when young men resort to gun violence,” District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro said in a written statement regarding the case. “This guilty plea certainly bolsters our case against the remaining co-defendant, as both were identified by the same witnesses as being responsible for this deadly criminal act.”