Court grants Koon retrial

• By JOE GYAN JR.
• Advocate New Orleans bureau
• Published: May 7, 2008 - Page: 1B - UPDATED: 12:13 a.m.

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NEW ORLEANS — A federal appellate court has upheld U.S. District Judge James Brady’s decision to throw out a Denham Springs man’s triple murder conviction and death sentence and grant him a new trial.

Walter “Joey’’ Koon was found guilty in 1995 of first-degree murder in the slaying in Baton Rouge of his estranged wife, Michelle Guidry Koon, and her parents: 73-year-old Richard Guidry and 66-year-old Felicie Guidry. Jurors recommended the death penalty.

Brady ruled early last year that the work of Koon’s court-appointed trial lawyer, Kevin Monahan, was “egregious,’’ “unprofessional’’ and “constitutionally deficient.’’ A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans agreed late last week.

“There is a reasonable probability that the jury would have convicted Koon of a lesser offense than first-degree murder if Monahan’s performance had not been deficient,’’ the panel wrote. “It is probable that Koon’s level of culpability would have been reduced in the eyes of the jury.’’

Circuit Judges Jerry Smith and Priscilla Owen of Texas and Jacques Wiener Jr. of Shreveport said Monahan’s failings “subverted both the insanity and manslaughter aspects of Koon’s defense’’ and “undermine any confidence we might otherwise have in the propriety of his first-degree murder conviction.’’

Monahan could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Koon remains behind bars.

Baton Rouge lawyer Jim Boren, who now is representing Koon along with federal public defender Rebecca Hudsmith, said the East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney’s Office’s remaining options include asking the 5th Circuit for a rehearing and petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case.

“I would not be optimistic about their chances for success if I were them,’’ Boren said.

Brady said Monahan erred in trying the case alone, hiring a mental health expert just one day before the trial and neglecting to interview the lone eyewitness to the crime. That eyewitness, Sarah Robinson, has recanted her testimony.

The 5th Circuit’s 14-page opinion notes that Robinson was with Koon on March 5, 1993, when he drove to the Audubon Avenue home of his in-laws, where Michelle Guidry was staying. After observing Koon shoot Guidry in the backyard, the appeals court judges said, Robinson ran screaming from Koon’s truck into the Guidry residence and hid until he left the scene.

The appeals court judges said Monahan’s defensive strategy centered on Koon’s mental state at the time of the killings, and Robinson was the only eyewitness to them and to Koon’s behavior in the hours preceding the shootings.

“Monahan failed even to attempt to interview her, though, and Robinson ultimately took the stand and directly contradicted Koon’s testimony that she had told him that his wife was having an affair,’’ the judges wrote. “The prejudicial effect of this contradiction cannot be overstated because Monahan had theorized that Robinson’s testimony would bolster Koon’s ‘heat of passion’ defense, not undermine it.