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Jury finds Sharpe guilty of murder
Insanity defense rejected after weeklong trial BY MATT BRUCE Staff writer
It took a jury of six men and six women less than 40 minutes to convict Ryan Joseph Sharpe of second-degree murder at the end of a weeklong trial on Friday evening. The verdict was the culmination of an eight-year saga. Jurors rejected the contentions from Sharpe’s attorney that he was
insane when he went on a murderous shooting spree over the span of three months in 2017. He shot four men at random, killing three of them. Carroll Breeden Sr., a 66-yearold ex-BREC supervisor, was one of the deceased victims. Sharpe shot the man in the chest as he was doing yard work on his multi-acre property along Port Hudson-Pride Road in September 2017.
“He knew exactly what he did. He was proud of what he did. And he needs to be held accountable for what he did,” Assistant District Attorney Dana Cummings told jurors during her closing arguments. District Judge Colette Greggs, who presided over the trial, set Sharpe’s sentencing date for Dec. 12. He faces a mandatory life term in prison. The spate of random shootings
sparked widespread panic in rural portions of East Baton Rouge and East Feliciana parishes. It also prompted multiple law enforcement agencies to converge and form a task force to find the killer. A b o u t t h r e e Sharpe weeks after he shot Breeden dead, Sharpe shot and killed Brad DeFranceschi in a very similar way. He shot the
WHITE LIGHT NIGHT
48-year-old Boy Scout leader multiple times as he was trimming weeds outside his East Feliciana Parish house on the Avondale Scout Reservation along La. 63. DeFranceschi died at the scene. A jury found Sharpe guilty of murder by an 11-1 vote in 2019, but that conviction was tossed after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled nonunanimous verdicts unconstitutional in 2020. At a retrial in August 2024, a
ä See GUILTY, page 5A
Solar plant opens in Iberia Parish $1.1B facility expected to provide 800 jobs
BY STEPHEN MARCANTEL and ADAM DAIGLE Staff writers
STAFF PHOTOS By HILARy SCHEINUK
Mid City transformed into a lively celebration Friday night as the 28th annual White Light Night offered a large open-house style market event featuring art, live music, food and shopping, sponsored by Mid City Merchants. ABOVE: Ornement Jewelry’s Tiffanie Lasseigne, second from left, chats with customers during Friday’s event. RIGHT: Sarah Pommier, left, chats with Tyronecia Moore, of House of Sassfiend, as she makes a purchase on Friday.
When Georges Antoun came to Louisiana from Lebanon in the early 1980s, he needed money. The country was entering an oil crisis, and cities along the Gulf Coast — especially places like Lafayette that depended on oil and gas jobs — felt the hit first. As families moved to larger cities like Houston in search of work, Antoun began offering a service: For a fee, he’d drive their moving trucks back to Louisiana. It’s no secret that Louisiana has long lost talent to its western neighbor and has sought ways to entice them back. The opening of First Solar’s $1.1 billion solar panel manufacturing facility near New Iberia has allowed Antoun, now the company’s chief commercial officer, to have conversations with families who have chosen to return to Louisiana to work at the facility. The 2.4 million-square-foot mega complex is one of the largest investments in the Acadiana region and is expected to provide more than 800 jobs by the end of 2025. When the site selection process began for First Solar to find its next manufacturing facility, leaders in Iberia Parish and Acadiana got to work. There were at least 10 sites in the running to land the billion-dollar project that would bring hundreds of jobs. Two of them were out of the country. When the Iberia Parish site made the cut for the final three, things got interesting. “That’s when we really had to put on our championship jackets and really work hard,” said Mike Tarantino, president and CEO of the Iberia Industrial Development Foundation. “We’re so happy First Solar chose us. We’re so excited to see this plant come to fruition.”
ä See PLANT, page 4A
Trump, Mamdani have friendly meeting Political adversaries seem to become allies
BY MICHELLE L. PRICE
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday met the man who had proudly proclaimed himself “Donald Trump’s worst nightmare,” but he seemed to find the opposite. The Republican president and New York City’s Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani were warm and friendly, speaking repeatedly of their shared goals to help Trump’s hometown rather than their
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combustible differences. Trump, who had in the past called Mamdani a “100% Communist Lunatic” and a “total nut job,” spoke openly of how impressed he was with the man who had called his administration “authoritarian.” “I think he is going to surprise some conservative people, actually,” Trump said of the democratic socialist as Mamdani stood next to him in the Oval Office. The meeting offered political opportunities for both men. For Mamdani, a sit-down offered the state lawmaker — who until recently was relatively unknown — the chance to go head-to-head
with the most powerful person in the world. For Trump, it was a high-profile chance to talk about affordability at a time when he’s under increasing political pressure to show he’s addressing voter concerns about the cost of living. Until now, the men have been political foils who galvanized their supporters by taking on each other, and it’s unclear how those backers will react to their genial get-together and complimentary words. “We’re going to be helping him, to make everybody’s dream come true,
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By EVAN VUCCI
President Donald Trump shakes hands with New york City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in the Oval Office of the White ä See MEETING, page 5A House on Friday.
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