In the quiet suburbs of Metairie, Louisiana, a celebration following a flag football victory turned into a scene of unimaginable horror. Nicholas Pence, a 25-year-old man, was enjoying an evening with friends in his family's garage. The gathering wrapped up around 11:30 p.m. on April 22, 2015, and Nicholas went inside his home on Clifford Drive. Less than twenty minutes later, he and his father, 56-year-old David Pence, would be found shot to death in what police described as an execution-style
killing.
Elizabeth Pence, Nicholas's mother and David's wife, was in bed when she was startled by the sound of gunshots and breaking glass. She immediately called 911. In the living room, she discovered her husband, who appeared to have been sleeping in a chair, and her son on the floor, both suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Despite the 911 dispatcher's instructions to perform chest compressions on her son, Nicholas's injuries were too severe, and his last breaths were captured on the emergency call.
Investigators were initially perplexed by the brutal double homicide in a typically peaceful neighborhood. There were no signs of forced entry, and it appeared the assailant had entered through a side door. The motive became clearer as detectives looked into a string of recent car burglaries in the area. A neighbor's surveillance camera captured 17-year-old Dexter Allen attempting to break into cars nearby. Further investigation linked Allen and his 18-year-old girlfriend, Haraquon Degruy, to a car burglary one street over through fingerprint evidence.
Two days after the murders, police located and arrested Allen and Degruy. Investigators determined that Allen had entered the Pence home with the intention of stealing a purse he saw on the kitchen counter. He was armed with a shotgun that had been stolen from an Orleans Parish deputy. David Pence was shot first as he slept in his recliner. Nicholas, likely drawn by the sound of the gunfire, was then shot after apparently being forced to the ground. In October 2016, Dexter Allen was convicted of two counts of second-degree murder and 19 counts of simple burglary. Because he was a minor at the time of the killings, he was spared a mandatory life sentence. However, in April 2017, a judge sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
