In the early evening of December 4, 2017, the life of 34-year-old Samuel James Johns, a male resident of Shreveport, Louisiana, was tragically cut short. Shreveport Police were called to the 2100 block of Talbot Street shortly after 6:00 p.m. following reports of a shooting. Upon their arrival, they discovered Johns lying on the front lawn of a residence, having sustained multiple gunshot wounds to his upper body.
He was pronounced deceased at the scene.
At the scene of the crime, officers detained a 26-year-old man named Furlonzo Moran. Investigators also recovered a handgun, shell casings, and narcotics from the area. Initially, Moran was taken into custody on unrelated charges of aggravated assault and for being a fugitive from within the state. He was subsequently booked into the Caddo Correctional Center.
Following a thorough investigation, which included the analysis of physical evidence collected at the scene by the North Louisiana Crime Lab, authorities were able to link Moran to the murder of Samuel Johns. On February 14, 2018, the Shreveport Police Department's Violent Crimes Unit charged Moran with one count of second-degree murder. When confronted by officers at the scene, Moran reportedly admitted to shooting Johns, claiming that Johns had been trying to kill him.
Furlonzo Moran was later indicted for the second-degree murder of Samuel Johns by a Caddo Parish grand jury on April 18, 2018. After legal proceedings that included a sanity commission evaluation, Moran's trial took place from September 29 to October 1, 2020. He was ultimately convicted of second-degree murder and later appealed his conviction, which was affirmed in May 2022.
