[StBernard] Justice Unserved

[Westley Annis]

I'm so glad this guy will be put away for the rest of his life.  I remember
this incident to so well.  I lived in Lexington Place back then and this was
so horrible.  He killed that man in cold blood and wounded that poor baby.
Another neighbor lady, can't recall her name, but she tried to help and
helped drag the man shot in the leg into her house in the chaos of it all.
Terrible in our peaceful family neighborhood. 
 
Laurie 


> -----------------------------------------------------

> Man will spend life in mental institution for Meraux bus stop shooting

> by The Times-Picayune 

> Thursday October 30, 2008, 5:15 PM

> A St. Bernard Parish judge found a man accused of killing a Meraux father

> during a shotgun-shooting spree at a school bus stop in 2003 not guilty by

> reason of insanity. 

> 

> However, in his ruling Wednesday in state district court in Chalmette,

Judge

> Manuel Ferndez also declared that Louis Schenck would continue to be a

> danger to himself and others and ordered Schenck incarcerated in the East

> Feliciana Forensic Facility for the remainder of his life, courts

> transcripts show. 

> 

> Schenck, 51, was to stand trial on charges of first-degree murder and

three

> counts of attempted first-degree murder stemming from the shooting in the

> Lexington Place subdivision in August 2003. 

> 

> Danny Foto, 39, was killed by a shotgun blast. Foto's then 2-year-old son,

> who he was holding at the time, was critically wounded, as was another

man,

> Steven Miller, whose foot had to be amputated after his ankle was

shattered

> in the shooting. 

> 

> At least twice, in November 2003 and June 2004, Schenck had been found

unfit

> for trial at sanity hearings. 

> 

> Schenck's attorney, Michael Fawer, said after the St. Bernard Parish

> District Attorney's office agreed not to seek the death penalty, Schenck

> waived a jury trial. Schenck also waived his right to seek release from

> incarceration in the mental hospital. 

> 

> The District Attorney's office offered the police report from the shooting

> and the autopsy report as evidence. Fawer offered the results from the

> Sanity Commission. 

> 

> "Every doctor who's seen him said he was nuts at the time of the crime,"

> Fawer said. 

> 

> The victims' families had been consulted and agreed to the ruling. 

> 

> The St. Bernard Sheriff's Office said Schenck fired three blasts with a

> 12-gauge shotgun at the bus stop the morning of Aug. 19, 2003 after an

> argument with his parents, who lived next door to Foto. Someone at the bus

> stop had also yelled at him to slow down as he sped to his parents home,

> investigators said.