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S u n d ay, n ov e m b e r 23, 2025
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DNA backlog delaying New Orleans murder cases But the fix — a local crime lab — is years away
BY JILLIAN KRAMER Staff writer
STAFF PHOTOS By ENAN CHEDIAK
The Rev. Tony Rigoli stands in Our Lady of Guadalupe Church on Rampart Street in New Orleans on Friday. As the city braces for an immigration crackdown, Rigoli says, ‘After Katrina, it was immigrants who came to help, They built lives. They were honest.’
New Orleans braces for Border Patrol sweeps Fear, anxiety grip immigrant communities
A lasting fix remains years away for what District Attorney Jason Williams calls the single biggest factor slowing homicide prosecutions in New Orleans: the wait for DNA test results. Local testing isn’t expected to begin until at least 2027 — though it could take even longer without additional funding and staff. In the meantime, the city will LONGING continue to depend on state FOR JUSTICE and private labs, a temporary Part four arrangement that has resolved in a series one crisis only to create another. That reliance dates back two decades, since Hurricane Katrina left New Orleans without a functioning testing facility and the city began sending DNA evidence to the Louisiana State Police Crime Lab. The outsourcing churned into a backlog so deep that the average turnaround for a DNA test climbed to 441 days earlier this year, a slowdown that has stalled at least 18 homicide cases this year alone.
ä See DNA, page 12A
Judges lining up for open Louisiana Supreme Court seat
BY JAMES FINN Staff writer
Along Williams Boulevard in Kenner, signs in Spanish beckon passersby into law firms specializing in immigration, restaurants hawking carnitas and groceries selling traditional Central American ingredients. Julio Machado, a Venezuelan-born local restaurateur, opened a new eatery last December on the Jefferson Parish thoroughfare because he saw promise in a strip that has emerged as a commercial hub for southeast Louisiana’s blossoming Hispanic community. Jefferson has the most Hispanic residents per capita of any Louisiana Parish; Kenner, the most of any Louisiana city. Right away, a cascade of problems enveloped the new venture. Workers were hard to find; business was anemic. The shop was almost always empty, save for a few customers during the lunch rush. Lukewarm job applicants and occasional customers relayed versions of the same explanation: Workers were avoiding establishments that
Will Crain nominated to federal court Brent Moreno holds a handful of the whistles that he 3D-printed to use to alert people of potential immigration raids in Gretna on Saturday. Since Friday, he has already given out over a hundred. ‘As a first generation American and son of an immigrant Colombian family, I am just doing my part to help any way I can,’ Moreno said. traditionally relied on Latin American labor, terrified of the crackdown from President Donald Trump’s administration on undocumented immigrants. Would-be customers were saving cash, bracing for potential costs of hiring immigration lawyers or reuniting with deported loved ones. After 10 months, Coma Arepas
BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer
— Spanish for “eat arepas,” a traditional corn-based Venezuelan street snack — was seeing “pretty much no business at all,” Machado said. The little blue-and-yellow shop closed in October. Fear and anxiety have gripped southeast Louisiana’s immigrant
The race to replace Justice Will Crain on the Louisiana Supreme Court has begun even before Crain has left the position to become a federal judge. Crain’s nomination by President Donald Trump was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday on a party-line vote, setting him up for final confirmation by the full Senate sometime soon. In the meantime, five judges in Crain’s Supreme Court district along Interstate 12 are expressing varying degrees of interest in running for his seat after it becomes vacant.
ä See SWEEPS, page 8A
ä See JUDGES, page 9A
Music museum weighs move to ‘hallowed ground’ Project considers Rampart spot
ternative locations as uncertainty deepens over the River District’s future. That uncertainty stems from the collapse last month of a rescue BY ANTHONY McAULEY deal for the $1 billion River DisStaff writer trict development. The new plan to Backers of the Louisiana Music keep the project on track had been and Heritage Experience — long negotiated after the developer conbilled as a cultural anchor of the sortium, River District Neighbornew River District next to the Er- hood Investors, or RDNI, missed nest N. Morial Convention Center ä See MUSEUM, page 6A — have begun talks to secure al-
WEATHER HIGH 77 LOW 62 PAGE 8B
PROVIDED RENDERING
With negotiations of a River District site, above, now in limbo, Louisiana music museum organizers have reopened conversations on other sites while simultaneously working with the Convention Center on a potential direct lease.
Business ......................1E Deaths .........................3B Nation-World................2A Classified ..................... 2F Living............................1D Opinion ........................6B Commentary ................7B Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C
13TH yEAR, NO. 103