Desean Leggett was a 23-year-old Black man whose life was cut short on a Sunday afternoon in New Orleans. On August 11, 2024, Leggett arrived at the Chef Discount Market at 10833 Chef Menteur Highway around 1:33 p.m. Surveillance footage from the store showed that as he reached for the front door, a man exiting the business, Ted Breaux, suddenly raised a handgun. Breaux shot Leggett multiple times in the face at point-blank range before fleeing in a gold GMC Terrain.
Emergency services responded, but Leggett was pronounced dead at the scene.
The New Orleans Police Department’s Homicide Section launched an immediate investigation. At the scene, detectives recovered six spent 9mm cartridge casings. Lead detective Walter Edmond began piecing together the evidence, which included the store's surveillance footage, witness interviews, and purchase records from the market. Using this information, along with a phone number connected to the suspect, investigators quickly identified 22-year-old Ted “Tezo” Breaux of Luling, Louisiana, as the gunman.
Within a day of the shooting, police obtained an arrest warrant for Breaux on a charge of second-degree murder. On August 16, five days after the killing, members of the NOPD's Violent Offender Warrant Squad located and arrested Breaux in a Kia Forte. Inside the vehicle, on the driver’s side floorboard, officers recovered a Glock 17 9mm pistol. Subsequent ballistics testing confirmed that the pistol was the same firearm used to kill Desean Leggett. Breaux was booked into the Orleans Parish Justice Center.
The case was prosecuted by the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office, with Assistant District Attorney Corey Tassin leading the effort. During the legal proceedings, Victim-Witness Advocate Angele Crawford provided support to the Leggett family. Following the trial, Ted L. Breaux was convicted of manslaughter. He subsequently received the maximum sentence allowed under Louisiana law for the crime: 40 years at hard labor. With the perpetrator tried and sentenced, the case is considered closed.
