On a December evening just four days before Christmas in 2015, the life of George Hardin 'Kees' Reusch Jr., a 27-year-old white male, was tragically cut short in a shopping center parking lot in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The Prairieville electrician and bodybuilder had arranged a meeting at the Esplanade Mall located at the intersection of Corporate Boulevard and College Drive. Police later described the arranged meeting as a drug transaction.
While Reusch sat waiting in his idling Jeep Grand Cherokee, he was approached by a man who entered his vehicle.
Shortly after 7:30 p.m., a single gunshot rang out in the busy parking lot. Witnesses saw a man, later identified as 27-year-old Glenn L. Spears, exit the Jeep with a backpack and flee the scene on foot with his 23-year-old brother, D'Mon M. Spears. Reusch's vehicle, no longer under control, rolled into traffic, crashing through a chain-link fence before colliding with a pickup truck. Emergency responders rushed him to a local hospital, but he was pronounced dead shortly after his arrival. The untimely death of Reusch, a graduate of Dutchtown High School who had also attended Southeastern University, left his family devastated. He was the sole provider for his fiancée, Yasbeth Espinosa, and their seven-month-old son, Roman.
The investigation into the shooting moved quickly. On December 24, 2015, Baton Rouge police arrested D'Mon Spears and 25-year-old Gabrielle H. Rogers. Rogers had driven the Spears brothers to the location to meet Reusch. Investigators also noted that Rogers had brought her own 5-year-old son with her to the fatal meeting. Both D'Mon Spears and Rogers were initially charged with principal to first-degree murder, and Rogers faced an additional charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The suspected gunman, Glenn Spears, remained at large for a time before being taken into custody.
In April 2016, an East Baton Rouge Parish grand jury handed down indictments against the three individuals. The suspected triggerman, Glenn Spears, was indicted on charges of second-degree murder, armed robbery, and being a felon in possession of a firearm. His brother, D'Mon Spears, was indicted on a second-degree murder charge, while Gabrielle Rogers was indicted for being an accessory to second-degree murder. The case was assigned to state District Judge Bonnie Jackson.
