In the late hours of November 21, 2014, in Lafayette, Louisiana, 22-year-old Dwayne Batiste Jr. was fatally shot. Police responded to reports of gunfire in the 800 block of West Gilman and discovered Batiste deceased inside a truck. An investigation into his death was launched, but for more than a year, the case remained unsolved.
A breakthrough in the case came in February 2016 when a special task force, established to re-examine unsolved homicides, announced arrests in connection with
Batiste's death. Cody Ramon Brown, a 33-year-old man from Lafayette, was indicted on a charge of second-degree murder. At the time the charges were brought against him, Brown was already an inmate at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola for unrelated offenses.
In addition to Brown's indictment, another man, 26-year-old Dwayne Carmouche Jr. of Breaux Bridge, was arrested and charged with accessory after the fact to second-degree murder. Authorities also issued a warrant for a second individual for accessory after the fact to second-degree murder, though this person was not immediately named pending their arrest.
