No plea reversal for homicide

Lawyers for a Jeanerette man charged with vehicular homicide and hit and run driving failed Friday to persuade a state district judge to withdraw his guilty plea. Now, their client is facing 12 years in prison.

District Judge Lori A. Landry denied a motion by lawyers representing Darryl Boudreaux Jr. , 27, with a last known address of 5003 Alta B. Drive in Jeanerette, to withdrawal Boudreaux’s April 22 guilty plea of one count each of hit and run felony driving and vehicular homicide.

The charges stem from an April 2, 2006, hit and run incident which left Iraq War veteran Joshua DeRouen, 21, of New Iberia, dead.

DeRouen was walking on U.S. 90 near the Buck Wild Saloon in New Iberia, east of Center St., when he was struck by a sport utility vehicle driven by Boudreaux.

DeRouen’s mother, Maxine, said her son was “treated like an animal.”

“How much belligerence can this guy get away with?” Maxine said of the man who struck and killed her son and then fled the scene.

New Orleans defense lawyer Thomas Calogero represented Boudreaux in court on Friday. Calogero argued that his client had been led to believe that he would only have to serve a maximum of seven years, as opposed to 12, and that mitigating circumstances such as the fact that the victim was intoxicated at the time of the incident should allow his client to enter a new plea. Landry did not agree, and upheld Boudreaux’s plea arrangement.

“Emotions don’t sway this court to give you more or less time,” Landry told Boudreaux, who sat in quietly court in handcuffs and a prison uniform. “Circumstances do.”

Assistant District Attorney Bo Duhe argued against the defense’s motion. “He has no credibility before this court,” Duhe said of Boudreaux.

Friends and relatives of both DeRouen and Boudreaux were on hand for Friday’s hearing. Raymond Villagomez is a DeRouen family friend and another victim of Boudreaux, having sustained a serious head injury from Boudreaux in a January 2004 bar room incident.

“It was my wife and my anniversary,” Villagomez said. “He hit me from behind and I woke up in the emergency room. He showed no remorse then, either.”

Boudreaux pleaded guilty to one count of simple battery in connection with that incident.