Man charged in serial killings isn’t facing the death penalty

BATON ROUGE, LA. » Louisiana prosecutors aren’t seeking the death penalty against a suspect charged with killing three men and wounding a fourth in a string of shootings last year.

District Attorney Samuel D’Aquilla told The Associated Press on Monday that he informed Ryan Sharpe’s defense attorney of his decision not to seek the death penalty against the 36-yearold man over a deadly shooting in East Feliciana Parish. D’Aquilla added that he still reserves the right to seek the death penalty if “something changes for us dramatically” as the case proceeds.

Sharpe is charged with first-degree murder in the Oct. 9 shooting of Boy Scouts employee Brad DeFranceschi, who was gunned down while trimming weeds in front of his house. DeFranceschi lived on Boy Scouts camp property in Clinton, a town of 1,600 people about 30 miles northeast of Baton Rouge.

The charges that he faces in the other three shootings aren’t punishable by a death sentence.

Sharpe is charged with second-degree murder in the July 8 shooting of 62-year-old Tommy Bass, who was killed in the carport of his home. He is charged with attempted first-degree murder in the Sept. 12 shooting of 47-yearold Buck Hornsby, who was wounded while exercising on his property. And he is charged with second-degree murder in the Sept. 19 killing of 66-year-old Carroll Breeden, who was shot to death while doing yard work in front of his home in East Baton Rouge Parish.

D’Aquilla said he based his decision on several factors, including the “very timeconsuming” nature of capital murder cases. He said he expects Sharpe’s attorneys to challenge his “mental capacity” to stand trial.

“We don’t want to get into a lengthy battle with that,” D’Aquilla said.

Tommy Damico, one of Sharpe’s attorneys, said a defense argument that Sharpe is mentally unfit for trial “may be on the table.”

“Without getting into all of the evidence, this is a very unusual type of situation,” Damico said.

A 2009 law amended Louisiana’s first-degreemurder statute to make it easier for prosecutors to seek the death penalty against people accused of serial killings.