BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Prosecutors in one Louisiana parish have dropped charges against a man accused in another parish of killing a state trooper and one of his own relatives.
Matthew Mire, 31, of Livingston, is accused in shootings in three adjacent parishes on Oct. 9, 2021. Master Trooper Adam Gaubert and Pamela Adair, 37, were killed in Ascension Parish.
East Baton Rouge Parish Assistant District Attorney April Leon told a judge on Thursday that the lead case is the double murder, which should be tried first, The Advocate reported.
That case is scheduled Sept. 12 before Judge Katherine Tess Stromberg, the Ascension Parish Clerk of Court's Office said Friday. Mire is charged there with first-degree murder, which has only two possible sentences: lethal injection or life in prison.
Leon reserved the right to bring the four East Baton Rouge charges again after charges in Ascension and Livingston parishes are settled, news agencies reported.
The dropped charges include attempted murder of another state trooper who was shot when he tried to stop Mire and aggravated flight from an officer. The state trooper agreed with the decision, Leon said.
Mire, who was caught in East Baton Rouge Parish after a daylong manhunt, had pleaded not guilty to those charges and to the Ascension Parish charges, which also include two counts of attempted first-degree murder, and one each of home invasion and attempted armed robbery.
In Livingston Parish, east of Baton Rouge, Mire is accused of shooting two people and stealing a truck before heading into Ascension Parish, which is south of the other two.
He pleaded not guilty in Livingston Parish on Jan. 25 to two counts of attempted first-degree murder and one each of home invasion, burglary and vehicle theft, the clerk of court's office said Friday.
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