Car sighting led to arrest

• By JOE GYAN JR.
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Nov 4, 2009 - Page: 2B

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A stolen car briefly spotted in the driveway of Trucko Stampley’s parents’ home played a key role in Stampley’s arrest on multiple murder charges in April 2007, a police detective testified Tuesday.

Stampley, 22, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the fatal shootings of 80-year-old Marie Pedescleaux and her 47-year-old daughter, Denise, in their Glen Oaks home, and Charles and Ann Lynn Colvin — both 73 — in their Goodwood Estates home.

Homicide Detective John Dauthier testified at a court hearing in Stampley’s case that a car missing from the Pedescleaux home on Crown Avenue was found April 26, 2007, at a burglarized home in Terrebonne Parish.

The bodies of the Pedescleauxes were discovered the day before.

Dauthier testified a Dodge Charger stolen from the Houma residence was spotted by police on April 26, 2007, in the driveway of a home on Cherry Street, where Stampley lived with his parents.

Police circled the block, and when they returned the car was gone, Dauthier said.

It was found shortly thereafter on a nearby street, abandoned with the engine running, he said.

A “split second’’ before Stampley was caught in the area, he dropped a .380-caliber handgun, Dauthier said.

Court documents say the stolen gun matched the weapon used in the Pedescleaux killings. The documents also say police found bullets that matched casings recovered at the Pedescleaux home and matched bullets found on Stampley at the time of his arrest.

Fingerprint evidence taken at the Houma crime scene was positively matched to Stampley, according to court documents.

The Colvins were found shot to death in their Thibodeaux Avenue home on April 27, 2007. They had been dead a number of days, and their car also was stolen, authorities said.

Dauthier’s testimony came at a hearing on a defense motion to suppress evidence, including two DVD players and a black bag containing spent shotgun shells, that homicide detectives seized from the Stampley home on Cherry.

State District Judge Lou Daniel recessed the hearing until Jan. 12 after the defense learned for the first time Tuesday that burglary detectives also searched the home.