On a cold winter day in New Orleans, a 36-year-old Black man named Calvin Celestine, known to some as "Plucky," was fatally shot on February 6, 2011. His death was not a random act of violence but a calculated execution tied to the city's dangerous heroin trade. The initial investigation by the New Orleans Police Department began to unravel a complex web of drug trafficking and gang-related violence that would ultimately lead to the conviction of his killer.
The investigation revealed
that Celestine's murder was orchestrated from within a criminal enterprise. Shortly before his death, Celestine had given a substantial sum of money, reportedly around $60,000, to a man named Darryl Franklin to purchase a kilogram of heroin. Franklin then traveled to Houston to procure the drugs. However, a sinister plot was already in motion to eliminate Celestine.
The man who would ultimately be held responsible for pulling the trigger was Gregory Stewart, also known as "Rabbit." Stewart, a member of a violent drug gang, was contracted to kill Celestine. On the day of the murder, Stewart and a known associate carried out the hit. In the aftermath, Stewart was recorded in a phone call confirming that he had killed Celestine and would be compensated with heroin for the murder. As payment for the execution, Darryl Franklin gave Stewart a portion of the heroin purchased with Celestine's money and approximately $7,000 in cash.
Gregory Stewart was eventually arrested and, in July 2014, pleaded guilty to a wide-ranging heroin conspiracy and his involvement in several gang-related murders, including the murder of Calvin Celestine. His cooperation with the federal government led to a reduction in his initial sentence of four life sentences to two, which was later further reduced to 35 years. While Stewart was held accountable for his role in the murder, the identity of his associate in the killing of Calvin Celestine has not been publicly disclosed in the available documents.
