Michael DeShon Porter, a 35-year-old Black man from Natchitoches, Louisiana, was killed in the early morning hours of July 11, 2023, in a shooting outside a Motel 6 on the Highway 1 By-Pass. At about 2:19 a.m., officers with the Natchitoches Police Department were dispatched to the motel at 7624 Highway 1 By-Pass after receiving a report of a gunshot victim. When officers arrived, they found Porter suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.
The Natchitoches Parish Coroner’s Office pronounced him dead from his injuries. His obituary records his full name as Michael DeShon Porter and confirms that he died in Natchitoches on July 11.
The investigation quickly expanded beyond the initial crime scene. By July 12, police had identified Matthew Robinson of Natchitoches as the primary suspect and obtained an arrest warrant charging him with second-degree murder. Authorities publicly warned that Robinson should not be approached or detained by members of the public because he was considered armed and dangerous. Investigators continued searching for him while asking anyone with information about his location or the shooting to contact the Natchitoches Police Department.
Within days, detectives made an arrest involving another person they believed was connected to the homicide. Ambrea Howard of Natchitoches was arrested without incident and booked into the Natchitoches Parish Detention Center on a charge of principal to second-degree murder. The principal charge indicated that investigators alleged she was involved in the commission of the offense even though the public reports did not identify her as the person accused of firing the fatal shots. Police continued looking for Robinson after Howard’s arrest.
Investigators subsequently identified Trevonte Jefferson of Natchitoches as an additional suspect and announced that a warrant had been issued for him on a principal-to-second-degree-murder allegation. At that point, the case involved Robinson as the person wanted for second-degree murder, Howard as an arrested alleged principal, and Jefferson as another wanted alleged principal. A later Natchitoches Parish jail roster lists Trevonte Reshawn Jefferson with an arrest date of July 18, 2023, although the roster excerpt does not identify the charge connected with that booking. The available reporting located for this synopsis does not establish a later trial, plea, dismissal, or other final disposition for Jefferson or Howard in Porter’s homicide case.
Robinson remained outside Louisiana for several weeks after the killing. In August 2023, authorities announced that he had been located and arrested in Arkansas in connection with the Motel 6 homicide. He was being held there while awaiting extradition back to Natchitoches to face the second-degree-murder charge. The arrest ended the search that had begun shortly after Porter’s death and moved the central prosecution into the Louisiana court system.
The case continued through the courts. In March 2024, Natchitoches Parish District Attorney Billy Joe Harrington announced that a parish grand jury had returned a true-bill indictment charging Matthew O’Sean Robinson with second-degree murder in connection with a July 2023 homicide. The indictment represented the formal felony prosecution that followed Robinson’s arrest and return to face proceedings in Louisiana.
Robinson’s case ultimately reached the point of jury selection in 2026, but it did not proceed to a completed jury trial. During jury selection in May, after ten jurors had already been chosen, Robinson entered a guilty plea to the reduced charge of manslaughter and also pleaded guilty as a habitual offender. Judge Desiree Dyess presided over the case, and Robinson was sentenced to a total of 80 years at hard labor. Reporting on the disposition described the underlying case as the 2023 homicide in the parking lot of a local Natchitoches hotel and noted that Robinson had fled the area after the killing before eventually being found and arrested in Arkansas. The plea and lengthy sentence brought the prosecution of the principal defendant accused in Porter’s killing to a conclusion nearly three years after the shooting.
