A 22-year-old Gibson man who admitted to stealing a newborn calf and beating it to death with a shovel after his Saints party was ruined by the team's loss to the Dallas Cowboys last winter received a 5-year prison sentence this morning.
David J. LeBlanc Jr., one of several men convicted by the St. Tammany Parish District Attorney's Office in the case, had asked for leniency.
LeBlanc helped Dwayne J. Jenkins, 36, and Carnie B. Smith, 29, steal the 3-day-old calf on Dec. 19, 2009, from Folsom's Red Bluff Farms, famous for a petting zoo frequented by schoolchildren. They dragged the animal to the parking lot of a nearby apartment complex on Louisiana 1078, where they had attended the Saints party.
There, LeBlanc pummeled the calf with the shovel until it died while Jenkins and Smith watched, according to authorities.
Eventually, St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office investigators were led to the men. Jenkins and Smith pleaded guilty to their roles and received two years of probation in October from state Judge Martin Coady.
Another man, Christopher R. Murphy, 27, of Franklinton, did not participate in killing the animal, but he removed the calf's carcass, drove into the wilderness and dumped it, according to the DA's Office. He pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of misdemeanor theft and received two years of probation.
On Monday, Coady slapped LeBlanc with hard prison time because, as the judge explained, LeBlanc used "a dangerous weapon" to cause the "painful death" of a defenseless animal.
The judge ignored pleas from LeBlanc prior to the sentencing in which LeBlanc said he deserved either the same punishment if not a lighter one than his fellow defendants got because he was "the only one who came forth and told the truth" to investigators.
"The others lied the whole time," added LeBlanc, who wore a black-hooded sweatshirt and dark-blue jeans to the hearing. "(Prison) would ruin my life completely. I have a kid on the way. I could not do that."
Coady also forbade LeBlanc to be near animals for the duration of his sentence and ordered him to undergo psychiatric evaluation as part of the punishment. The judge recommended LeBlanc apply for a boot camp program by which he could shave off part of his sentence, but acceptance into the program is not automatic.
After Coady concluded the hearing, LeBlanc was handcuffed. He slumped into a bench and buried his face into his hands.
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