In the autumn of 2018, a domestic dispute in the Little Woods neighborhood of New Orleans escalated into a brutal act of violence that claimed the lives of a young couple and left their children witnesses to the tragedy. Gregory Peter Heisser III, a 23-year-old male, and his fiancée, Darnisha Desilva, were shot and killed in their home on October 9, 2018.
The couple’s three young children, including a one-year-old son and a three-year-old daughter, were tragically present during the horrific event.
The investigation into the double homicide led authorities to Kenneth Augustine, the ex-boyfriend of Darnisha Desilva’s sister. Prosecutors revealed that the motive for the killings stemmed from a domestic dispute. In the aftermath of the shooting, Augustine fled, and it was later discovered that his mother and sister had assisted him in his attempt to evade law enforcement. They eventually accepted a plea deal for their involvement and served a six-month sentence.
After years of legal proceedings, the case against Kenneth Augustine came to a close in May 2024. A jury found him guilty of two counts of second-degree murder. The emotional trial included testimony from family members, and the harrowing detail that one of the couple's children, who was only three years old at the time, had witnessed the murder of her parents.
Following his conviction, Kenneth Augustine was sentenced to two mandatory life sentences in prison without the possibility of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence. While Augustine's attorneys filed a motion for an appeal, the verdict brought a long-awaited sense of justice to the families of Gregory Heisser III and Darnisha Desilva, who had endured a lengthy and painful wait for legal resolution.
