Tyrone Myles will face trial this week on a second-degree murder charge, after rejecting a plea offer that would have sent him to prison for 30 years for the killing.
Myles, 24, is charged in a Nov. 26, 2017, 7th Ward homicide that killed 23-year-old Antoine Brumfield.
After rejecting the murder plea offer, he pleaded guilty Monday to being a felon in possession of a firearm – one of two charges listed in his indictment in Brumfield’s killing – and on Tuesday (April 30) was sentenced to 40 years in prison on that charge. Criminal District Judge Laurie White sentenced Myles as a double offender following a multiple bill hearing in which she found Myles had a 2013 simple burglary of an inhabited dwelling conviction.
The state offered Myles a 30-year sentence in exchange for a manslaughter plea, but Assistant District Attorney Jason Napoli said that offer was off the table once he was sentenced on the gun possession charge. He now faces life in prison if convicted on the murder charge.
White likely would have ordered the sentences be served concurrent, had Myles accepted the offer, meaning he would have been sentenced to 40 years total on both charges -- 30 for manslaughter and 40 for possession of a firearm. The 40 years must be served at hard labor without the benefit of probation, parole or a suspended sentence.
“I’m not taking a plea,” Myles said, referring to the homicide. “I’m going all the way to trial.”
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Defense attorney Jay Daniels said he had multiple conversations with Myles about the evidence against him, how the state is likely to present that evidence and how a jury might receive it. Daniels said he supports a person’s right to go to trial, but the risk of going to trial in this case outweighs the benefits.
Daniels said he filed a motion to continue last week outlining some of his concerns, including Myles’ indication he no longer wanted Daniels to represent him. He said he was putting that information on the record to make his efforts clear in case an ineffective assistance of counsel claim pops up later.
Brumfield was gunned down in the 1900 block of North Rocheblave Street around 7:30 a.m. A witness whom police initially arrested in the shooting told detectives he was physically fighting with Brumfield when Myles ran over and fired his weapon.
Napoli said Myles was captured on surveillance video removing a gun from his waistband and walking to the area where Brumfield was shot.
Brumfield was the father of an 8-month-old girl, and worked as a security guard on Bourbon Street. His brother said at the time of his death Brumfield was “a good little dude” who “never got in trouble.”
A jury was being seated in Myles’ trial Tuesday, and testimony was expected to begin Wednesday. If convicted of second-degree murder, Myles faces an automatic life sentence.
via nola.comhttps://www.nola.com
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