Killing of Jeremy Mardis

Background

Marksville, a small city of 5,702 people as of the 2010 census, is a place where locals tend to know each other. Its politics were described as especially intense and personal, marked by ongoing disputes between Mayor John Lemoine and various city officials over budgets. These conflicts began shortly after Lemoine took office in 2009, when he pushed for audits of the city court and recommended cutting the budget, including the salary of Marshal Floyd Voinche.

Lemoine also clashed with the Marksville Police Department, which cycled through three chiefs during his five-year term. About three months before the shooting, Voinche’s office hired several local officers for part-time street patrols and bought two used Ford Crown Victorias. These patrols focused on traffic stops and citations, expanding the marshal’s role beyond its previous duty of serving court papers. Lemoine later said Voinche did not consult the city about this expansion and wrote to the Louisiana Attorney General questioning its legality.

State law, however, grants marshals authority to enforce law within their jurisdictions, which was considered to cover street patrols and ticketing.

Police officers involved

Three of the four officers involved worked both as police officers and as marshals. In Marksville, deputy marshals had been empowered earlier in 2015 to make discretionary arrests, preserve the peace, and issue traffic tickets, unlike most of Louisiana where marshals are limited to serving legal documents. Norris Greenhouse Jr., 23, was a reserve officer with the Marksville Police Department and a deputy marshal for the Alexandria City Marshal's Office, with one year on the force.

Derrick Stafford, 32, was a lieutenant and shift supervisor for the Marksville Police Department, an eight-year veteran, and was moonlighting as a deputy marshal at the time of the shooting. Both were among several officers hired by the Marksville Marshal's Office about three months prior. At the time of the shooting, Greenhouse, Stafford, and Marksville Police Chief Elster Smith Jr. were subjects of a federal civil suit for use of force. Stafford was the subject of five civil suits in Avoyelles Parish, and Greenhouse was named in one.

Stafford had also been indicted in 2011 by Rapides Parish on two counts of aggravated rape, but the charges were dropped in 2012. Lieutenant Jason Brouillette and Sergeant Kenneth Parnell responded to the backup call; Parnell wore a body camera that recorded part of the incident.

Victims

Christopher Few moved from Mississippi to the Marksville area in April 2014 to work as an apprentice riverboat captain and be closer to relatives. He was listed in critical condition on November 3, with bullet fragments remaining in his brain and lung, and his condition improved to serious the following morning. By November 9 he was hospitalized in Alexandria, Louisiana, with his condition upgraded to fair, and he was released on November 13. Body-cam footage reportedly shows Few had his hands up when he was shot.

Jeremy David Mardis was diagnosed with autism at age two. At the time of the shooting he was in first grade at Lafargue Elementary School in Effie, Louisiana, having moved with his father from Mississippi the year before. Mardis' mother Katie Mardis and his sister live in Mississippi. Christopher Few's fiancée Megan Dixon described Mardis as an affectionate and intelligent child who did speak.

Mardis was in the front seat of Few's vehicle and wearing a seatbelt when they were shot, and was pronounced dead at the scene. A funeral was held on November 9 at Moore Funeral Services in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and he was buried in Beaumont Cemetery. His father was still hospitalized and unable to attend.

Investigation and prosecution

Greenhouse and Stafford surrendered on the evening of November 6 and were charged with second-degree murder and second-degree attempted murder. They were transferred on November 9 from Avoyelles Parish jail to Rapides Parish Detention Center #3, which police said is better equipped to isolate them from the general population, a standard procedure for separating ex-law-enforcement inmates. Colonel Mike Edmonson of the Louisiana State Police investigated and stated that the body-camera video recorded by a responding officer was essential to the arrests, along with interviews with cooperating officers, 9-1-1 recordings, and unspecified forensic evidence.

Ballistics tests showed only Greenhouse and Stafford fired their weapons. Initial news reports that Few had a warrant for his arrest were false, and Edmonson said there was no evidence of a firearm inside Few's vehicle. The Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, the FBI, and the Office of the United States Attorney participated in the investigation. Few's fiancée Megan Dixon said the pursuit may have been prompted by Few running a red light or by officers seeing an altercation she had with Few at a traffic light.

One police vehicle reportedly received damage from Few reversing into it. Dixon also said Few had encountered Greenhouse a month before the shooting and threatened to hurt him after Greenhouse contacted Dixon and went to their home.

Did You Know?

• Stafford was sentenced to 40 years in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years.
• Greenhouse was paroled in 2019 after serving 1 3/4 years of his 7-year sentence.
• The chase ended near the entrance to the Marksville State Historic Site.