The trial of Michael Anthony Guillory, charged with second-degree murder in the 2016 shooting death of a Church Point woman, has been postponed after the state filed a motion to continue.
The motion was filed on Sept. 15 by Assistant District Attorney Alisa Gothreaux, prosecutor in the case, 13 days before the trial was scheduled to begin on Sept. 28. A hearing on the matter was set for Sept. 15. The docket did not list a new trial date.
On May 14, 2019, Guillory, 32, of Church Point, was charged with second-degree murder in the death of Bethany Walters.
The motion lists several reasons to continue the trial including an opinion provided by an expert for the defense, new technology that may allow access to the cell phones of both the victim and the defendant, as well as a tablet collected at the scene and the issue of a material witness not being able to be present for the previously scheduled trial dates of Sept. 28 to Oct. 2.
The motion also cites COVID-19 concerns as a reason for the motion to continue.
In the motion, Gothreaux stated that on the afternoon of Sept. 10 she learned that new technology had been developed to get past locked cell phones.
“The State has located a technician with Louisiana State Police on September 14, 2020, who has agreed to make an effort to access the phones and tablet,” Gothreaux stated. “The State is (in) need of additional time to have this evidence adduced.”
As to the opinion provided by the “expert” for the defense, the motion reads, “On July 28, 2020, the undersigned received a report from defense expert Christopher Robinson, which surprisingly doesn’t mention any analysis of the murder weapon, despite Defendant having shipped the weapon to Georgia for examination. Rather, Mr. Robinson provides an opinion as to trace evidence allegedly missed by the State’s experts. To answer this new assertion, the State is in need of more time to conduct further expert evidence analysis.”
The material witness who was unable to make the scheduled trial dates of Sept. 28-Oct. 2 is an expert who was previously employed with the St. Tammany Parish Crime Lab. This witness conducted gunshot residue analysis. The witness is currently unavailable for medical reasons.
Lastly, the motion details how the State of Louisiana’s COVID 19 phases have affected the trial.
The motion reads, “The State anticipates that the trial in this matter will take several days, not including jury selection, to complete, and that the variables introduced by the pandemic during such a lengthy trial would be minimized if the matter were delayed at this time.”
This is the second time the trial has been postponed. The trial was originally set to begin April 28, which would have been the victim’s 26th birthday. The trial was postponed then due to COVID-19 pandemic and reset for Sept. 28. The trial was set to be heard in the St. Landry Parish Courthouse in Opelousas in front of 27th Judicial District Judge Jason Meche.
On the night of Jan. 25, 2016, deputies with the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office were dispatched to a home in the 1400 block of Prudence Highway near Church Point in reference to a subject possibly shooting herself.
When deputies arrived at the home, which Walters shared with Guillory, they observed a black male, later identified as Martin Guillory, Michael Guillory’s father, administering chest compressions to a white female, later identified as Walters. The victim was on the floor of a bathroom.
connected to one of the home’s bedrooms.
She had suffered a gunshot wound to the head.
According to a Eunice News report from February 2016, Capt. Clay Higgins, former public information officer for the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office, said, “This is a death with suspicious circumstances. It’s potentially a homicide, but it could still turn out to be a suicide.”
Walters’ death was originally reported as a suicide, but investigators were waiting on laboratory tests before making a final ruling, Higgins said in the report.
Higgins said Guillory, who was 27 years old at the time, was named as a person of interest in the case.
Guillory was arrested Jan. 27, 2016, for unauthorized use of a movable and was jailed on that charge as well as a hold for probation and parole in connection with another, unspecified incident, according to the report.
In a May 29, 2019, Church Point News story, Lafayette attorney John Tilly, who was hired by the victim’s mother, Cindy Walters. Tilly said Walters wanted to find out what exactly happened to her daughter in her final moments, said that following the incident, Michael Guillory ran across the street to his parents’ home, told them Walters had shot herself and then fled in Walters’ car.
Tilly said Guillory was apprehended by authorities in Pointe Coupee Parish several hours later.
“Guillory fled the scene, crashed the vehicle in a nearby neighborhood and stole another vehicle in the area,” Tilly said. “Authorities in Point Coupee Parish found Guillory in the stolen vehicle in his boxer shorts, what he had been wearing the night before. Guillory gave them a false name, but they determined it was him.”
All available evidence in the case was turned over to Dr. James Traylor, associate professor of pathology and medical director of Autopsy and Forensic Services at Louisiana State University at Shreveport, who was hired by the victim’s mother to determine Walters’ cause of death. Traylor recommended further testing of the firearm connected to Walters’ death After receiving the results of the testing, Traylor’s opined that Walters’ death had been a homicide.
In the same May 2019 Church Point News story, St. Landry Parish Sheriff Bobby Guidroz explained that, during the initial investigation, the sheriff’s office collected the evidence in the case, but the district attorney could not convene a grand jury without an arrest.
Guidroz said the sheriff’s office suspected Guillory in the shooting, but needed more evidence to make an arrest. Guidroz said once Traylor’s findings were presented, a local judge signed the arrest warrant.
Guillory was indicted on the second-degree murder charge on July 18, 2019.
He entered a plea of not guilty during his Sept. 26, 2019, arraignment before Judge Meche. At the time, Guillory was serving out a sentence on felon in possession of a firearm and unauthorized use of a moveable charges related to the 2016 incident.
During a bond hearing on Oct. 30, 2019, Meche denied bond for Guillory, who has been incarcerated in the St. Landry Parish Jail since Nov. 1 of last year.
Guillory’s lawyer is Kenneth M. Willis with Willis Law Firm.
