A 62-year-old man has been charged with a 35-year-old cold case homicide.

The Caddo Sheriff's Office says Jimmy Lee Tigues was arrested by the U.S. Marshal's Fugitive Task Force at a home in the 2700 block of Regent Street. Detective Terry Richardson said he's been investigating Tigues and others for their involvement in several cold cases.

"This all started in 2004 with the Harold Cotton homicide. We had people that had contacted us about other unsolved murders that may be connected, possibly, to the suspect we had in the Cotton murder," Richardson said. "It just took quite some time to pull up all the reports, since they were so old. They're not in computers, they're in boxes and files here and there. It just took a while to gather all these things and look into it and share it with the DA's office."

Tigues is charged with second-degree murder for the death of Robert Earl French, who was 29 when he was killed on August 1, 1980. French had been shot multiple times in what Richardson described as a drug-related crime.

Richardson also made two other cold case arrests in 2014. Three men were charged with the 26-year-old homicide of Claudell Staten, and one of the same men was also charged with the 10-year-old homicide of Harold Cotton.

"He was murdered in 2004, and his body was found in his car out on White Springs Road off of Ellerbe in south Caddo. Obvious murder. That was not the murder scene. There was a primary scene somewhere, it was basically a body dump in that situation," Richardson said. "As we started into that, that's what led to information with all of these others. And Staten...he was actually found in his car just a few miles away from where Bruce Cotton was found, you know, 20 years later. So there were just a lot of similarities and some of the same names had arisen as the people who may be involved."

Det. Richardson said some of the same players were also involved in the Isadore Rozeman homicide in 1983. He believes all of these cold cases were drug-related.

He said none of those arrested in any of these cases has been convicted yet. They're still awaiting trial.

 

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