Lafayette Police Chief Jim Craft, though he offered no details, confirms a tip The Independent received that detectives investigating the disappearance of UL student Mickey Shunick have interviewed 19-year-old Rocky James Mcgee in connection with the case.
Lafayette Police Chief Jim Craft, though he offered no details, confirms a tip The Independent received that detectives investigating the disappearance of UL student Mickey Shunick have interviewed 19-year-old Rocky James Mcgee in connection with the case.
Craft directed all other questions to spokesman Paul Mouton.
"We have questioned many people in connection with this case," Mouton says, declining to confirm whether Mcgee or anyone associated with him is still being questioned. "That information is part of the ongoing investigation and not public record," he adds. "We have no one in custody. We have never had anyone in custody."
Mouton says he does not know what kind of vehicle Mcgee drives, nor would he release the information if he did. "It is part of an ongoing investigation," he says.
Two years ago the Teche News reported that Mcgee was involved in an automobile accident in Breaux Bridge in which Amin Jalaudin Amlani, 35, of Breaux Bridge was killed. The car Amlani was driving was struck by another vehicle being driven by Mcgee, then 17, also of Breaux Bridge, the paper reported. Click here to see an image of Amlani's vehicle.
The two-vehicle accident happened on Grand Point Road Hwy. 347, near Doyle Melancon Road.
Mcgee, who could not be reached for comment, was initially charged with OWI and felony hit and run with a fatality, according to St. Martin Parish Assistant District Attorney Chester Cedars. The ADA says two other individuals, Bryan Marks and Victor Simon, were in the vehicle with Mcgee. "None of them could be held criminally responsible because they were not the operator," Cedars says.
Cedars says he initially tried to charge Mcgee with vehicular homicide but would have had to prove that intoxication caused the accident, and the evidence supported that Amlani had turned into Mcgee's car. The ADA was able to secure a guilty plea to felony hit and run with a fatality. Mcgee is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 21; he faces up to seven years at hard labor.
Cedars says Mcgee was not prosecuted on the OWI charge, which would have been a misdemeanor. "By his pleading guilty to felony hit and run, there was no reason to prosecute OWI," he says. "We didn't give anything up on that. I went after the bigger charge. We intend in August to seek a hard labor sentence on this guy."