R EMEMBER I NG
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR R.
N O L A.C O M
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M o n d ay, J a n u a ry 19, 2026
N.O. East apartments sold to Texas firm
$2.00X
Group attacks policies of Connick era District attorney retracts support for freed lifer
BY JOHN SIMERMAN Staff writer
An old toy electric chair sat on a table in a federal courtroom in New Orleans last week as its owner tried to explain the 40-year-old artifact to a jury. Designed to shock, the plastic-and-tin device features a clip for a 9-volt battery. Attorney Jim Williams, who prosecuted capital murders in New Orleans in the 1980s, said he elicited a jolt in a different way. Back then, Williams famously adorned the toy chair with the photos of a half-dozen men he helped ship to death row from Orleans and Jefferson parishes. Williams kept the toy on a credenza in his office. “Pretty much everybody in the DA’s Office knew that I had that, I believe,” he testified. “Nobody told me to take it out.” For defense advocates, the toy became a blunt symbol of unchecked hubris and a win-first culture inside the office of former District Attorney
ä See POLICIES, page 4A
STAFF PHOTOS By CHRIS GRANGER
Recently renovated and painted, Laguna Reserve apartments, left, next to apartments of the same age, are waiting to be updated at the complex on Bundy Road in New Orleans East.
Four complexes totaling 1,500 units to be renovated BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL Staff writer
A Texas-based real estate company has purchased four large apartment complexes that make up more than a third of all multifamily units in New Orleans East, potentially bringing hundreds of newly renovated apartments online as city leaders seek ways to create more workforce housing. David Lynd, whose company, LYND, owns and manages thousands of apartments across the country, bought the developments out of bankruptcy on Jan. 9 for $26 million. He plans to spend an additional $26 million or so renovating them, he said Thursday. The four complexes, which have a total of 1,500 units, were badly damaged during Hurricane Ida and have only been partially renovated in the years since. With their former owner in bankruptcy, they haven’t gotten the investment they need, and fewer than half of their units are currently occupied, Lynd said. He wants to increase average occupancy in the four complexes to more
Trump backs Letlow for Senate, scrambling race Cassidy, already facing four major challengers, says he’s not dropping out
BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer
The building exteriors are also getting an upgrade. Metal stairways are being cleaned and repaired. Wooden balcony railings are being replaced. Exterior siding is getting a fresh coat of paint. than 90%. from the people who own it and work “We’re going to build an amazing there and live there — can enjoy it community,” said Lynd, who is based and be proud of it.” in San Antonio. “We’re going to create ä See APARTMENTS, page 3A an environment where everybody —
President Donald Trump’s endorsement Saturday night of U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow to be Louisiana’s next senator has dramatically shaken up a race where Sen. Bill Cassidy already had four major Republican challengers, political insiders said Sunday. Trump’s decision makes it likely that Letlow will formally enter the race in the coming Letlow days and adds to the headwinds that Cassidy was facing to win a third six-year term.
ä See LETLOW, page 5A
U.S. Supreme Court weighs where coastal cases should be tried Justices wonder about ripple effects
justices’ eventual ruling may not be as clear cut as either side hopes. A ruling in Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Plaquemines Parish is expected by this summer. There are likely four distinct ways the ruling could BY ALEX LUBBEN play out following Jan. 12 oral arStaff writer guments, according to attorneys The U.S. Supreme Court waded involved in the case and law prointo a landmark lawsuit last week fessors watching it. that seeks to hold oil companies to The high court is ruling not on account for allegedly damaging the merits of the case itself, but on the Louisiana coastline, but the a jurisdictional question: whether
WEATHER HIGH 57 LOW 42 PAGE 6B
the case belongs in federal or state court. That ruling will likely impact the 41 lawsuits that Baton Rouge law firm Talbot, Carmouche & Marcello have filed on behalf of coastal parishes against oil companies, each of which is seeking millions for damage to the coast. “I still think we are going to prevail,” said Vic Marcello, one of the attorneys for the parishes.
ä See COASTAL, page 3A
Classified .....................7D Deaths .........................3B Nation-World................2A Comics-Puzzles .....3D-6D Living............................1D Opinion ........................4B Commentary ................5B Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C
Canals carved by oil and gas companies over the past 100 years, like these in Plaquemines Parish, have eroded into open water and contributed to the Louisiana coastal land loss crisis.
PHOTO PROVIDED By LA’SHANCE PERRy, THE LENS
13TH yEAR, NO. 160