Catherine Lowe pleads to Manslaughter

Catherine Lowe, who was originally charged with 1st Degree Murder in the death of her step-daughter, Celeste Lowe, has negotiated a plea arrangement with District Attorney Schuyler Marvin that finds her guilty of Manslaughter. She will face a sentence of 10-40 years under the statute.

LOUISIANA MANSLAUGHTER LAW

LSA-R.S. 14:31

A.  Manslaughter is:

(1)  A homicide which would be murder under either Article 30 (first degree murder) or Article 30.1 (second degree murder), but the offense is committed in sudden passion or heat of blood immediately caused by provocation sufficient to deprive an average person of his self-control and cool reflection.  Provocation shall not reduce a homicide to manslaughter if the jury finds that the offender's blood had actually cooled, or that an average person's blood would have cooled, at the time the offense was committed; or

(2)  A homicide committed, without any intent to cause death or great bodily harm.

(a)  When the offender is engaged in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of any felony not enumerated in Article 30 or 30.1, or of any intentional misdemeanor directly affecting the person; or

(b)  When the offender is resisting lawful arrest by means, or in a manner, not inherently dangerous, and the circumstances are such that the killing would not be murder under Article 30 or 30.1.

B.  Whoever commits manslaughter shall be imprisoned at hard labor for not more than forty years.  However, if the victim killed was under the age of ten years, the offender shall be imprisoned at hard labor, without benefit of probation or suspension of sentence, for not less than ten years nor more than forty years.

Mother of five year old Celeste Lowe files suit

Jamie Mercer, the mother of five year old Anna Celeste Lowe, who was taken to WK Pierremont last January two hours after she had died, filed suit for damages Tuesday in Bossier District Court. The suit names as defendants:



Wesley Lowe (Father of the child)
Catherine “Cat” Lowe (Step-mother of the child)
State of Louisiana, Department of Children and Family Services
Tameika Monday (Employee of Children & Family Services)
Larry C Deen (Sheriff of Bossier Parish)
Debra McKay (Detective)
Buddy Caldwell (State Attorney General)
Louisiana Office of Risk Management
Mercer's suit alleges that the Department of Children and Family Services placed Anna Celeste into the custody of her father and step-mother without investigating Lowe and his background, and if they had done so would not have placed the child with him based on their own criteria. It further alleges that the Department did not conduct a home inspection or evaluation of any sort.
The suit says that on December 9, 2010, a teacher reported suspected abuse of Anna Celeste to the Sheriff’s Office. Detective McKay spoke to Wesley Lowe, in whose custody Anna Celeste was at the time, and with someone with the Department of Children and Family Services. Both Lowe and the Department blamed Jamie Mercer. Detective McKay did not contact Mercer. Mercer says that if she had been contacted, she could have told the detective that she had not seen Anna Celeste since October 30, over five weeks prior to the teacher’s report.
Mercer is being represented by Attorney Charles L. Kincade of Monroe.
Catherine Lowe was charged with 2nd Degree Murder by DA Schuyler Marvin. She was due to go to trial on February 13, but on January 6 her attorney, Randal Fish, was granted a continuance until May 21. The case is being heard by Judge Bolin.
Wesley Lowe has been charged with Negligent Homicide and trial is set for February 13.

Head of Family & Child Services expects disciplinary action in handling of Celeste Lowe investigation

Trey Williams, the head of the Department of Family and Child Services, told Channel 12 "At this time it's still an open investigation but we expect there will be disciplinary action” in the department’s Bossier office in the handling of the case of Anna Celeste Lowe.

Not a lot of details, but you can read the story and see the KSLA video here.

Times editorial about Celeste Lowe ignores a key fact

The Times has an editorial this morning recapping Alison Bath’s series on the events in the Celeste Lowe murder case.
I blogged on those articles, which I thought were very well done, here.
The editorial this morning noted that:

• Another call to Ouachita Parish authorities could have determined that the reason Lowe had custody — suspected abuse allegations against his former wife and Celeste's mother — had been determined to be unfounded.

The Ouachita Parish Sheriff’s investigators did determine that at that time, the charges were unfounded for lack of evidence.
What The Times is ignoring in the editorial this morning can be summed up in a sentence from Ms. Bath’s article:

• Finally, Social Services completed their investigation in December and validated the reported abuse.

The editorial this morning is ignoring that key fact.
The courts have to act with the information that they are given by both sides in a dispute, and by facts they ascertain from official sources.
The court had a copy of the Ouachita Sheriff’s investigation. They also knew that Social Services had determined – rightly or wrongly – that the charges of abuse at the hands of the mother were validated.
The editorial goes on to say:

• Bossier Parish judges must consider whether they too readily extended protective orders related to the custody fight. Protective orders were extended four times, including once after the investigation related to the alarm raised at Celeste's school.

First, the protective orders were not related to the custody fight, which was already settled in Ouachita Parish court, but were related to allegations of abuse. Social Services determined that the allegations were true.
I see no fault in the decisions made by the hearing officer and the judges of the 26^th JDC. They had to act on the facts they had at the time, and those facts told them that it had been determined that the child suffered abuse while in the custody of the mother.
The end result was a terrible tragedy, but let the blame lie where it lies – with the father and step-mother who perpetrated the act.
The court system did the best it could do with the information it had.

Times does 2 part series on Celeste Lowe

Reporter Alison Bath of The Times completed a two part series today on the situation leading up to the death of 5 year old Celeste Lowe.
Part 1
Part 2
I’ve heard a lot of comments from people who were curious as to why Bossier Parish judges would keep reissuing protective orders against the natural mother of the child. The answer is in the Times today.

• Finally, Social Services completed their investigation in December and validated the reported abuse. The news was a crushing blow to the 32-year-old Mercer, who never saw the report but was told that the agency had found against her because of consistent statements made by Celeste.

Since Social Services validated the abuse and found against the mother, how could the judges in Bossier Parish lift the order, effectively giving custody back to the mother?
Now we know that Celeste was in peril for her life in Bossier Parish; the judges and the hearing officer did not know that before the fact.
What is more troubling is the fact that in December the Bossier Sheriff’s department was called to Elm Grove School because one of Celeste’s teachers noticed a bruise on her neck. The sheriff’s office investigated.

• Bossier sheriff's spokesman Ed Baswell said a detective talked with Wesley Lowe, a Social Services worker and the teacher. All pointed the finger at Mercer — not Catherine Murray Lowe, Baswell said.  As a result of those conversations, the detective concluded the abuse occurred in West Monroe and was not within the Bossier sheriff's jurisdiction, Baswell said.  But the detective didn't talk with Celeste. The detective also didn't call Mercer or contact the Ouachita sheriff's office.  Although the detective was aware a Sept. 29 temporary protective order kept Mercer from her daughter, that knowledge didn't appear to trigger any questions about how Mercer could have abused Celeste.  "We had no reason to believe that any abuse occurred here and the child would not be in danger with the offending parent until court proceedings and the criminal investigations were concluded in Monroe," Baswell said.

What Baswell didn’t answer was how the mother could have been responsible for the bruise since she hadn’t seen the child in five weeks. If the sheriff’s office wasn’t aware of that fact, they should have been.  It is pretty apparent from the timeline that the abuse occurred in Bossier Parish.
Had this been fully investigated, would it have been the trigger to remove the child to foster care?  We'll never know.
Go to the Times and read the articles. There are no easy answers for any of it.

Charges against Catherine Lowe upgraded to 1st Degree Murder

Catherine Lowe, the stepmother Celeste Lowe, the five year old who died last week, has been charged with 1st Degree Murder in the death of the child.
Lowe and the child's father, Wesley Lowe, were both charges last week with Negligent Homicide.  The child had been gravely ill overnight and the father and stepmother refused to seek medical attention.  When they finally took her to Willis Knighton Pierremont, she was already dead.
Bossier Parish Sheriff's investigators have determined that Catherine Lowe was with Celeste during the time the injuries occurred last Wednesday afternoon..  They have verified that Wesley Lowe was at work during that time period.
Wesley Lowe is still charged with Negligent Homicide.

Investigation into death of 5 year old focusing on stepmother

Bossier DA Schuyler Marvin said that today that the investigation into the death of 5 year old Celeste Lowe is focused on Catherine Lowe, the child's stepmother.
Marvin told KTBS news that "A lot of the focus of the investigation at this point is aimed at the step-mother."  The child was in the care of Catherine Lowe from the time she got out of kindergarten last Wednesday and during the time that she apparently sustained the injuries.  Sheriff's investigators have verified that Wesley Lowe was at work during that period.
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