New details emerge in death of 6-year-old Jeremy Mardis

   In late 2015, one case captured the attention and the emotions of this parish as few others have ever done.

   The nation joined Avoyelles Parish in watching events unfold in the case of the shooting death of 6-year-old Jeremy Mardis and the near-fatal shooting of his father, Chris Few. 

   During the days, weeks and months that followed that Nov. 3, 2015 incident, frustratingly few details were released. It was a case of too many questions and too few answers to satisfy the public’s interest in the case.

   As the cases against Derrick Stafford and Norris Greenhouse Jr. proceed through the pre-trial motions phase, a few more details are emerging.

   A hearing on several motions in the case is scheduled for this Wednesday before 12th Judicial District Court Judge William “Billy” Bennett.

   In one of those motions, Assistant Attorney General Matthew H. Derbes provides the most detailed account of that night that has yet been presented to the public.

  The account notes that at about 9:20 p.m. on Nov. 3, 2015, a Marksville Police Department unit and deputies with the Marksville City Marshal’s Office “initiated a traffic pursuit of a vehicle driven by Christopher Few, who was transporting his 6-year-old son, Jeremy Mardis.

  “The reason for the pursuit is unclear, given that the officer who first began that pursuit, Norris Greenhouse Jr., failed to adhere to policy and transmit his reason for the stop to the dispatcher or indicate same over the police radio frequency.”

   The motion states that Greenhouse “has yet to provide a reason for this stop to anyone involved in the investigation.”

   Stafford’s attorney, Chris LaCour of Alexandria, told this newspaper that the prosecutors would know the reason for the pursuit if they read the case file.

  “Few got out of his car and stood in front of his girlfriend’s vehicle, preventing her from leaving,” LaCour said. “Witness statements attest to that. Norris Greenhouse Jr. came upon this scene. When he hit his lights, Few got in his vehicle and drove off, failing to respond to the officer.”

   In its recalling of that night, the motion notes that a second City Marshal’s vehicle, occupied by Stafford and Jason Brouillette, joined the pursuit. MPD officer Kenneth Parnell III also joined the pursuit.

   At the intersection of Martin Luther King Drive and Taensas Street, Few turned left onto Taensas and ran into a dead end in front of the Marksville Historic Site park and museum entrance. All four officers parked and exited their vehicles.

   “As Few began backing up his vehicle in an effort to leave the area, the officers now had their weapons drawn and were standing perpendicular to the driver’s side of Few’s Kia Sportage,” Derbes writes. “Greenhouse and Stafford began firing their .40 cal. semi-automatic weapons through the driver’s door and window. Parnell and Brouillette did not fire their weapons. The shooting was captured on Parnell’s body camera.”

   The motion states that a review of the body camera video “shows Stafford and Greenhouse to be at a safe distance away from the Kia that was backing away from them. It also shows Greenhouse and Stafford firing from a position perpendicular to the driver’s side. And, perhaps most important, it shows Few with his hands in the air, pleading for the officers to stop firing. They did not.”

    According to this account, Stafford “emptied his magazine of hollow point bullets.” 

   Of the 18 casings recovered at the scene, 14 were forensically matched to Stafford’s Glock 22 and four were matched to Greenhouse’s Glock 22.

   “Of the four projectiles that were recovered from young Jeremy Mardis, three were forensically matched through scientific analysis to Stafford’s weapon,” Derbes noted.

   The motion concludes by noting that Jeremy Mardis died at the scene, with his death ruled a homicide, while Few survived his wounds.

   The motion also points out that a search of Few’s vehicle found no weapon.