Ridiculous: Someone Is Found With Only A Wrap Of Ganja, He Spends Life In Jail; Someone Else Kills A Teen, And Spends Less Than One Year In Jail
SOURCE: THE ADVOCATE
BY BILLY GUNN
NOTE: This article appeared in the source under the title:
Seth Fontenot to be released Sunday, served less than 1 year behind bars for teen’s killing
Seth Fontenot will walk free again Sunday, when he's released from the Lasalle Correctional Center after serving 10 1/2 months for killing 15-year-old Austin Rivault in 2013.
Fontenot’s release comes a lot sooner than it could have been: His trial on first-degree murder, which carries an automatic life sentence, ended up delivering a manslaughter conviction.
State District Judge Ed Rubin sentenced Fontenot to 13 months, which is at the lower end of manslaughter’s zero- to 40-year sentencing range.
With good behavior and other factors in his favor, Fontenot is being released from the custody of the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections almost three months shy of the full 13 months. Pam Laborde, a spokeswoman for the corrections department, confirmed that Fontenot is scheduled to be released Sunday.
“My words today are at least one mama’s getting her son back,” Rivault’s mother, Renee Rivault, said. “I hope he (Fontenot) does well. I hope he doesn’t blow it.”
Fontenot, now 21, was an 18-year-old freshman studying accounting at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette on Feb. 10, 2013. It was early that Sunday morning when Fontenot heard popping sounds outside the family’s home on Green Meadow Drive in south Lafayette, just doors away from the Rivault family’s home.
Fontenot grabbed a 9 mm handgun his stepfather had purchased, walked outside wearing only Converse sneakers and underwear, then squeezed off three rounds at a truck that was driving away. He later told police he was shooting at the truck’s tail lights to scare those he believed were breaking into his vehicle.
Inside the truck, a Chevrolet Silverado, were three 15-year-olds: Rivault, who was shot in the back of the head and died in the truck; the driver, Cole Kelley, who was hit in his left knee; and William Bellamy, who took a bullet in the neck that is now lodged in his jaw.
Kelley and Bellamy survived and will graduate next week — Kelley from Teurlings Catholic High School and Bellamy from St. Thomas More Catholic High School, where Rivault attended until his death in the ninth grade.
Renee Rivault on Friday spoke of what might have been for her youngest son: “They should be leaving on a senior trip. He should be going to nationals for skeet shooting. He should be doing a whole lot of stuff, and he’s not.”
She said she and her husband, Kevin, will attend graduation Tuesday, where they’ll “be with him in spirit.”
Fontenot’s attorney, Thomas Guilbeau, said he’s talked to Fontenot several times during his stint in Olla, where the LaSalle Correctional Center is located. Guilbeau also said he’s talked to Fontenot’s family, who are “excited that he’s getting out.”
The family also has discussed Fontenot’s future, Guilbeau said, including whether he stays in Lafayette. That decision has not been made, he said.
‘Epic’ tragedy
Guilbeau said the case was one of the most difficult he’s ever defended.
“This whole case was a tragedy of epic proportions for everyone,” Guilbeau said. “Seth never intended to shoot those boys. He was shooting at the truck, never a person.”
The story of Fontenot and Rivault captured Acadiana’s attention: a killing in a peaceful, prosperous neighborhood; youthful players in the drama, all of them with clean records; legal maneuverings by prosecutors and Fontenot’s attorneys; heart-wrenching courtroom testimony and flowing tears.
Then there was the outrage when Rubin sentenced Fontenot to 13 months, which Rubin did twice. At the first sentencing, Rubin ordered Fontenot to prison for three years but suspended all but 13 months of the sentence.
Rubin had to hold a second hearing to resentence Fontenot when it became apparent the first sentence was faulty. No part of a prison sentence in a crime of violence can be suspended.
In between the sentencings, prosecutor J.N. Prather and his boss, District Attorney Keith Stutes, worked furiously filing papers trying to persuade Rubin to hold the entire sentence at three years, while Guilbeau and co-counsel Katherine Guillot lobbied for the 13 months.
Some members of the public also weighed in, buying display time on a digital Lamar Advertising billboards in Lafayette with the message, “Dear Judge Rubin, Please Get It Right This Time — Austin Rivault and Concerned Citizens of Acadiana.”
Rubin didn’t budge. Citing a doctor’s testimony that Fontenot’s brain wasn’t fully mature when he shot Rivault, the judge again sentenced Fontenot to 13 months.
Prather asked the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal to review the sentence, which he called “lenient,” but the higher court refused to look at the case and later refused to change the sentence.
“I will always applaud Judge Rubin for having the courage to do that,” Guilbeau said. “I know he took a lot of heat and criticism.”
Austin Rivault killed by Seth.
(Note that this photo was incorporated by Heartmenders Magazine and was not in the original article. Photo credit:
Austin Rivault killed by Seth.
(Note that this photo was incorporated by Heartmenders Magazine and was not in the original article. Photo credit:
Rivault’s family
Much of the criticism came from Rivault’s family. Following the second sentence, Kevin Rivault vowed he and his family would work with the state Legislature to try to change the sentencing provisions of a manslaughter conviction.
And they did.
A bill now moving toward passage — by Sen. Page Cortez and now called the Austin Rivault Act — would mandate that someone convicted of manslaughter would serve three to 40 years in prison, with three years of mandatory jail time. Cortez’s original bill called for 10 years of mandatory jail time, but that was lowered after debate in a House committee.
“The ridiculously lenient sentence given in this case highlights the need for guaranteed tougher punishments for these types of crimes,” Renee Rivault testified during a March 30 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
On Friday, she again stressed the need for mandatory sentences. “We’re never going to change gun violence in our country if we don’t hold people to a higher standard,” she said.
Fontenot’s release Sunday isn’t the end of his legal problems.
Still hanging over his head are two felony drug counts he was charged with during the Rivault investigation. Ironically, if he’s convicted on the charges of distribution of amphetamines, he’ll spend more time in prison than he did for killing Rivault.
Louisiana laws call for sentences of two to 30 years for selling amphetamines, which is a form of speed. Fontenot was charged after an investigation by UL-Lafayette police, who alleged that Fontenot sold Vyvanse and Adderall to other students.
Guilbeau, who is defending Fontenot on the drug charges too, has filed court papers asking a judge to throw out the charges. He said UL-Lafayette detectives collected no physical evidence for prosecutors to present at a trial.
A conviction without actual evidence “would be a neat hat trick if they can do it,” Guilbeau said.
The prosecutor in the case, Assistant District Attorney Richard Weimer, didn’t return a message Friday left with his office. A hearing is scheduled for July 8.
(Opening image: Ten-killer, and an alleged drug-dealer Seth Fontenot escorted by police. Photo credit: theadvocate.com.)
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