A 39-year-old sex offender was arrested recently following a report on Aug. 2 by St. Landry Crimes Stoppers host, Maj. Eddie Thibodeaux, seeking information about Chevez Whitehead Sr., 39, who was wanted for failing to notify law enforcement of his address change.
St. Landry Parish Sheriff Bobby Guidroz said Whitehead, a convicted sex offender since 2010, moved into St. Landry Parish from Rapides Parish. A check was conducted at his Opelousas address and Whitehead was nowhere to be found, he said.
Tips were received leading detectives to an address in Alexandria.
Detectives relayed the tip information to the U.S. Marshals Office and Chevez was found in a make-shift sleeping quarters inside of a shed on his brother’s property. Chevez was taken to the Rapides Parish Correctional Center for processing then transferred to the St. Landry Parish Jail for booking.
Whitehead, of the 500 block of Carrington Place Opelousas, has been charged with failure to register as a sex offender, Guidroz said. Bail was set at $2,000.
Guidroz said “I want to take this opportunity to thank the tipsters of Crime Stoppers for coming forward with information on Whitehead’s whereabouts. Working together through Crime Stoppers, law enforcement, news media outlets and of course the tippers, a sex offender was taken off the streets and our children are that much safer.”
