The ex-girlfriend of a defendant convicted of manslaughter has been sentenced to serve probation for helping to dispose of bullets from a gun she believed he used and clothes he wore in a 2013 fatal shooting in Morgan City.
District Judge Paul deMahy sentenced Ashley Nicole Rudolph, 25, of Morgan City, on Friday to serve two years of supervised probation and 80 hours of community service work, according to St. Mary Parish Clerk of Court records.
Rudolph is the ex-girlfriend of Justin Edward Patterson, who was convicted of manslaughter in March in connection with the May 2013 shooting death of Mikki Jay Dauntain.
Rudolph had pleaded guilty in November 2014 to a charge of obstruction of justice involving a felon in possession of a firearm. She had originally been charged with accessory after the fact to second-degree murder, obstruction of justice by tampering with evidence and conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice by tampering with evidence.
She testified at the trials of her ex-boyfriend in December 2016 and March. Patterson’s first trial ended in a mistrial after the jury deadlocked. In his second trial, a jury found Patterson guilty of manslaughter in the death of Dauntain, 23.
Judge Lori Landry sentenced Patterson in June to serve 25 years in prison.
Rudolph said at Patterson’s trials that she found clothes, a revolver and bullets on the floor of their home at the corner of Front and Franklin streets in Morgan City when Patterson came home the night of the shooting.
Rudolph said that she threw the bullets in the Atchafalaya River, and her friend, Lyndsey Guidry, disposed of the gun.
Rudolph and her mother, Linda Mejia, listed as Linda Madise in court records, testified that they burned clothes Rudolph found on the floor within a week of the shooting.
At Patterson’s second trial, two witnesses identified Patterson as the person who shot Dauntain on May 20, 2013, in the 2100 block of Federal Avenue in Morgan City. Several witnesses testified that Patterson’s intended target may have been Dauntain’s friend, Brandon Scott, whom Patterson believed had robbed him and Rudolph about six weeks before the shooting in the city of Patterson.
Rudolph testified that Patterson had confessed to her just hours after the shooting that he didn’t mean to shoot Dauntain and was actually trying to shoot Scott. However, Rudolph waited over three years to tell authorities about the alleged confession.
The robbery that was the alleged motive for Patterson to want to shoot Scott occurred in April 2013 at a Wise Street home in the city of Patterson where Patterson and Rudolph had been living. Several suspects were arrested in the robbery, but Scott wasn’t arrested.
Patterson and Rudolph moved to Morgan City shortly after the robbery.
On the night of the shooting, Dauntain’s girlfriend, Natasha Garner, said she was driving on Federal Avenue on her way to work with Dauntain in the front passenger seat and Scott in the back passenger seat when several women, including Patterson’s sister, Jessicah Johnson, flagged down her car. Johnson allegedly busted the back passenger side window trying to get to Scott.
Johnson, 25, has yet to go to trial on a second-degree murder charge in the case.
Five other suspects still face charges in connection with the case, including Patterson’s mother, Cassandra Garrett; Garrett’s boyfriend, Ashley Thomas; Linda Madise; Rudolph’s father, Patrick Madise; and Guidry.