Father & Son Shot Dead ‘Execution-Style’ by Black Teens in New Orleans (VIDEO)

Father slain in Metairie double-murder may have been asleep when shot, JPSO says

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By Andy Grimm, NOLA.com | Times-Picayune
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on April 26, 2015 at 12:59 PM,

David Pence and his son, Nicholas, were gunned down by shotgun blasts inside the living room of their Metairie home on Wednesday, a double murder that Jefferson Parish Newell Normand said began with a pair of New Orleans teens breaking into David Pence's car in the driveway.

But Normand said investigators still have no idea how a how a car burglary-- one of several committed in the neighborhood that by the two New Orleans charged in the killings-- escalated into an "execution-style" shooting.

When police arrived at the Pences' home in the 3700 block of Clifford Drive around midnight Wednesday, they found David Pence's body in a chair in his living room, with wounds from a shotgun fired at close range into his neck, chest and leg. Nicholas Pence's body lay on the floor a few feet away, with wounds to his face and the side of his head.

David Pence's wife, told police she was asleep in her bedroom and was awakened shortly before midnight by what sounded like glass breaking and gunshots, and discovered her husband and son's bodies.

"This particular happenstance was, you know, a completely, totally shock-the-conscience kind of homicide, obviously, execution-style, very close" Normand said, after describing how the bodies were discovered and the two-day manhunt that preceded the arrest Friday of Dexter Allen, 17, and Haraquon Degruy, on murder charges.

David Pence may have been asleep when he was shot, Normand said, and friends said that not long before the shooting, they had been hanging out with Nicholas in his garage.

"We're not sure Mr. Pence was even awake at the time. There's evidence at the scene to suggest he was not," Normand said at a press conference Sunday.

"I guess the most obvious question is, OK, we've got the car burglary, why this?"

Investigators who arrived at the Pences' house Wednesday noticed that the door was ajar on David Pence's Ford Mustang, parked in the driveway, and it appeared someone had rifled through the glove box.

Another car had been burglarized further down the block, and a canvass of the neighborhood turned up several other break-ins. Degruy's fingerprints were found on the door handle of one of the vehicles.

After her arrest Friday in New Orleans, Normand said Degruy told detectives she and Allen had been driving through the neighborhood in stolen Toyota Highlander in the hours before happening on the Pences' house in the 3700 block of Clifford Drive, breaking into cars.

Normand said investigators believe the pair might have noticed Nicholas and his friends gathered in the open garage as they passed the neighborhood.

One of Nicholas' friends told police that as he left the Pences' house Wednesday, he saw a white SUV cruising through the the neighborhood with the headlights off when he left the Pences', a tip that led investigators to the white Toyata Highlander—which had been stolen in a car-jacking in New Orleans—and, eventually, to Allen and Degruy.

Fingerprint examiners were able to lift Degruy's prints from one of the cars that had been burglarized in the Pences' neighborhood the night of the killings, Normand said. The JPSO and U.S. Marshal task force was searching for Degruy in eastern New Orleans, where they spotted the stolen Highlander outside an apartment complex.

The agents staked out the complex and spotted Allen and Degruy climbing into the SUV on Friday. Allen led the task force members on a car chase, tossing stolen items and other evidence out the window as he sped off, Normand said. Allen crashed the Highlander on Downman Road near Interstate 10. Degruy stayed in the wrecked SUV, but Allen took off running and was caught after a short foot chase, Normand said.

A search of Allen's mother's house in St. Roch turned up items that appeared to have been taken in the car burglaries, and a black Mossberg pump-action shotgun that matched the four shell casings found in the Pences' living room, and a fifth casing remained in the chamber, Normand said.

Police are continuing to search for evidence that Allen and Degruy tossed along the path of the chase, Normand said.
Degruy told investigators she and Allen had been breaking into cars, and she had taken the wheel of the Highlander as Allen walked through the neighborhood. Allen returned to the SUV and pulled out a shotgun and told Degruy to wait for him.
Allen returned a short time later with an iPad, a cellphone-- items Pence's wife, Elizabeth, had reported missing after the shootings-- and the shotgun. Normand said Allen told Degruy, "I just shot and killed somebody, we gotta get out of here." The pair drove to Allen's mother's house in St. Roch.

Police said Allen has admitted to burgalarizing cars in the neighborhood, but denied killing the Pences.

Allen has been booked on two counts of first-degree murder. Degruy is in custody on two counts of accessory to first-degree murder and burglary of a vehicle.

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