In the late summer of 2020, the life of Jessie Gobert Jr., a 54-year-old man, was tragically cut short in Shreveport, Louisiana. On the morning of August 10th, maintenance personnel at a mobile home park in the 3300 block of West 70th Street made a grim discovery. Inside his residence, they found Gobert deceased. The subsequent investigation by the Shreveport Police Department would reveal a scene of violence.
The Caddo Parish Coroner's Office, through the use of fingerprint comparison,
positively identified the victim. An autopsy determined that Gobert had sustained at least one gunshot wound and also suffered from blunt force trauma. Homicide and Crime Scene Unit detectives were called to process the scene, collecting evidence and interviewing potential witnesses. Their investigation led them to believe that Gobert had returned home sometime before midnight on the preceding Sunday. Neighbors later reported hearing what they believed to be gunshots in the early morning hours of Monday, between 3 and 5 a.m.
As the investigation progressed, authorities identified two individuals in connection with Gobert's death. In March of 2021, a Caddo Parish Grand Jury handed down indictments against two men. Derek Barrington Gore, 47 years old at the time, was charged with second-degree murder in the death of Jessie Gobert Jr. Another man, 41-year-old Jeffrey Randall Howell, was also indicted, facing a charge of obstruction of justice for actions he allegedly took following Gobert's death through August 18, 2020.
