Two arrested in park slayings

• By KIMBERLY VETTER
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: May 6, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 2:15 P.M.

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A man training to be a corrections officer and his girlfriend will be booked into Parish Prison this afternoon in the slayings of a 21-year-old woman and her son at an East Baton Rouge Parish park, authorities said.

Dominique Dantoni Smith of Zachary and Trendall Lashel Matthews of Jackson will be booked on two counts each of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder, the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office said.

Two of the dead woman’s children, a young girl whose throat was cut and her infant sister, survived. The suspects allegedly killed the mother and son Sunday, leaving their bodies and the surviving children at Doyle’s Bayou park near Zachary overnight, authorities have said.

The adult victim was Jessica Johnson, 21, of St. Francisville, said Casey Rayborn Hicks, a Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman. Her son was 3-year-old Juan Palmer Jr.

Hicks said the 4-year-old girl found at the park is the daughter of the male suspect, Smith, and the slain woman, Johnson. Smith was romantically involved with both Johnson and Matthews.

Detectives are also investigating the possibility that money may have been a motive in the slayings, Sheriff Sid Gautreaux said during  a news  conference this afternoon.

Detectives found the murder weapons at the scene, he said, but they are not going to say what those weapons are until the Coroner’s Office has completed the autopsies. Detectives also found burned clothing  at  the  scene, Gautreaux  said.

Smith was cooperative with detectives and he admitted being at the park, but he did not admit involvement in the crimes, the sheriff  said.

Smith was found near St. Francisville by West Feliciana Parish sheriff’s deputies, Gautreaux said. East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s deputies apprehended Matthews in her hometown of Jackson, he said.

Smith asked Johnson to bring the children to the park to meet him Sunday afternoon, Hicks said.

At the park, Smith and Matthews killed Johnson and 3-year-old Juan, she said. They also allegedly cut the 4-year-old and left her and her infant sister alone in the park.

At the news conference, Gautreaux said his office feels confident about the evidence it has and that statements detectives got from  the 4-year-old matched what  detectives found at the scene.

Smith was training to become a correctional officer at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, said Cathy Fontenot, a prison spokeswoman. He showed up for the training academy at 7 a.m. Monday, the day after the killings, and was there until 4:30 p.m., she said.