Betrayed by the Bench: Lafayette’s Justice System Keeps Choosing Criminals Over Citizens

On Sunday night, August 24, 2025, families gathered at DeBaillon Park in Lafayette, Louisiana, to hold a vigil against gun violence. They came to mourn, stand together, and demand change. Instead, they got more blood. A six-year-old girl was critically wounded when shots rang out at an event meant to denounce exactly this kind of violence.

This wasn’t random. It wasn’t inevitable. And it sure wasn’t fate. It was predictable. It was preventable. It was the direct result of a justice system that caters to violent criminals while turning its back on ordinary citizens.

A Revolving Door for Armed Offenders

On November 7, 2024, Lafayette had the opportunity to apprehend one of the suspects. Daylon Andrus had been charged with illegal possession of a stolen firearm as part of an ongoing investigation into an attempted murder. Instead of pressing the serious charge, prosecutors reduced it to “attempted illegal possession of a stolen firearm.” Judge Royale Colbert handed down a slap on the wrist: six months in parish jail and three years’ probation. One month earlier, Andrus had also been charged with drug offenses.

That January 24, 2024, shooting also involved Rickey Chaney, Anthony Ventress, and Jaylon Grosse, all initially charged with attempted first-degree murder. By June 2024, prosecutors had dropped all charges against Ventress and Grosse.

Chaney’s charges were reduced to aggravated battery. Judge Royale Colbert handed him a “ten-year” sentence. Every single day suspended.
No prison time. Just three years’ probation and a return to the streets.

Now, some of these same names have reappeared in connection with this most recent shooting, where a child was left clinging to life.
That’s not justice delayed. That’s justice betrayed.

This Isn’t New — It’s a Pattern

We’ve been documenting this for over a year:

• In Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied, we revealed how dozens of Lafayette homicides from 2020 to 2024 were still unresolved.
• In Prosecution: More Than Just Another Leg, nearly 60% of felony cases from one month were still open a year later — stuck in limbo while prosecutors and courts dragged their feet.
• In Courts: Reaching the Finish Line, we exposed the absurd reality of Lafayette’s five trial divisions: each with one felony trial day a month. That’s 52 trial dates a year to handle thousands of charges. The rest? Plea-bargained or dismissed.
• In When Judges Reward Chaos: The Royale Colbert Effect, we showed how Judge Colbert excused disruptive behavior, sending a message that the rule of law didn’t apply — not in his courtroom.

Criminals noticed. And they acted accordingly.

A Judge Under Scrutiny, a Community at Risk

In addition to Judge Colbert’s controversial rulings, he’s also under formal scrutiny. The Louisiana Judiciary Commission is investigating multiple allegations of misconduct, including abuse of power.

And yet, he remains on the bench, continuing to issue decisions that have life-and-death consequences. The kind that plays out in public parks while families pray for peace and children take bullets meant for someone else. If the man in the robe isn’t held accountable, what hope is there for anyone standing in front of him?

Legislators Who Let It Happen

Fixes have been proposed—fundamental, substantive reforms.

The Timely Delivery of Justice Act (HB343) could’ve required courts to meet basic deadlines — resolving 75% of cases within 90 days, 95% within 180, and nearly all within a year. Other states do it. Louisiana chose not to.

Instead, lawmakers gutted the bill and passed HB792: a meaningless paperwork requirement with no real consequences. Courts now have to submit a form, but nothing changes.

The Segus Jolivette Act (HB11) would have required judges to impose real jail time on repeat violent offenders. But the bill was blocked after district attorneys and judges lobbied against it. Let that one sink in for a moment.

The blood in DeBaillon Park is not just on the shooter’s hands. It’s on Judge Colbert’s hands, on the District Attorney’s Office, and, yes, it’s on the Legislature.

Let’s Stop Pretending

Let’s stop calling it a compromise when a plea deal frees an attempted murderer  — it’s a betrayal.
It’s not mercy when officials suspend a sentence for a violent felony — it’s negligence.
We can’t accept as “caution” every legislative retreat from reform — it’s cowardice.

It’s time to start saying it out loud: Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied.

Not just denied, but dismantled and deliberately sabotaged by the very people sworn to uphold it.

The People Know the Truth

Ask anyone in Lafayette. You’ll hear the same thing: anger, fear, disgust. It’s not just aimed at the crime but at the system that lets it happen over and over again.

People don’t ask, “How could this happen?” They ask, “Why do the courts keep letting it happen?” They ask, “Why are criminals protected more than our kids?”

The public already knows the truth: The system isn’t broken by accident. It’s broken by design.

Because a broken system serves those in charge. It keeps their dockets light, their reputations intact, but our neighborhoods are bleeding.

Enough Is Enough

How many more vigils have to end in violence before we demand change?
How many more “ten-year” sentences will be handed down with zero jail time?
How many more innocent children must be gunned down before the people responsible are held accountable?

Everyone knows this betrayal isn’t attributable to misfortune or bad luck. Unless Lafayette calls it what it is and demands better,  DeBaillon Park won’t be the last place where justice dies and innocent blood is spilled.

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