Judge upholds tossing of conviction, new trial for Koon
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NEW ORLEANS — A federal appellate court has let stand U.S. District Judge James Brady’s decision to toss out a Denham Springs man’s triple murder conviction and death sentence and order 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.’’ The Baton Rouge judge said Monahan erred in trying the case alone, hiring a mental-health expert just one day before the trial and neglecting to interview the only eyewitness to the crime, who now has recanted her testimony.
A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans upheld Brady’s decision late last week.
“Convinced that the district court applied the proper legal standards to the relevant facts and reached the correct conclusions, we affirm its grant of Koon’s petition on the basis that he was denied effective assistance of counsel during the guilt/innocence phase of his trial,’’ Circuit Judges Jerry Smith, Jacques Wiener Jr. and Priscilla Richman Owen wrote.
Smith and Owen are from Texas; Wiener is from Shreveport.
Prosecutors allege that Koon, armed with a semiautomatic pistol, drove to his in-laws’ Audubon Avenue home. In the back yard, he allegedly shot his wife twice, then went into the house and shot Felicie Guidry as she tried to call authorities. He allegedly later shot Richard Guidry twice in the chest, then, after Guidry had fallen, moved closer and shot him twice more, killing him.
