SLIDELL, La. (WGNO) — The suspect involved in a 2018 double homicide case, has been sentenced after pleading guilty to a total of six charges. along with an additional unrelated crime.
23-year-old Jason David Landry will spend the next 80 years in prison after entering a guilty plea on March 22, for:
- Two counts of manslaughter
- Two counts of second-degree kidnapping
- Two counts of conspiracy to commit armed robbery with a firearm
On Feb. 16, 2018, the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office began an investigation into a missing woman report called in by the victim’s mother. Deputies quickly began searching for Raegan Day and her boyfriend Dustin Hartline, who were last seen on Feb. 15 leaving Pearl River, Louisiana, and heading to Kenner in a blue Camaro.
Court documents report, while on the road, Day received a call from a woman, “co-defendant 1”, asking to be picked up and taken to a Slidell home for a reported drug purchase. They arrived at an abandoned mobile home occupied by Landry and “co-defendant 4” in the case.
Upon arriving, Landry and “co-defendant 2” exited the mobile home with face coverings and guns in hand. Day and Hartline were forced out of the vehicle and walked down a trail into the woods where Landry shot Hartline in the back of the head, according to documents.
Co-defendant 2 reportedly got scared by the gunshot and accidentally discharged his weapon striking Landry in the foot. Documents report, Landry then shot Day in the back of the head.
According to court documents Landry and “co-defendant 1” left the scene in Day’s car. Landry was taken to Slidell Memorial Hospital where he had surgery to remove the bullet from his foot.
Co-defendants 2 and 3 reportedly returned to the scene and discovered Day was still alive but ignored her cries for help and fatally shot her in the head. The two then moved the bodies off the trail and covered them with trash on the edge of the woodline and left, discarding the weapon, a .25 caliber handgun in a water pit.
Documents report later that night “co-defendant 2” returned to the scene, put the victim’s bodies in the back of the Camaro, and dumped the vehicle into East Pearl River near the boat launch on Highway 90 near the Louisiana, Mississippi State Line.
Authorities reported 18 days later, the vehicle and bodies were found in the river. Investigations revealed a fourth “co-defendant” who owned the home where all defendants lived. St. Tammany deputies arrested all five people and the remaining four will be tried at later dates.
Both victims’ families were present in court and agreed on Landry’s sentencing of 40 years for each manslaughter count and 40 years for each count of kidnapping, to be served consecutively, and 30 years for each count of conspiracy.
The families released this joint statement:
“We are left with questions and memories. We believe it is now our job…to make sure justice is served. It starts today with Jason Landry, spending the rest of his life in jail thinking about what he did and the impact his decisions left on this family.”
Landry also pled guilty to second-degree battery against an inmate in the St. Tammany Parish jail.
District Attorney Warren Montgomery described the crime as heinous and says it deserves the most serious consequences.
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