Shreveport Man Found Guilty in 2021 Murder

A Shreveport man accused of shooting and killing another man on Melara Avenue almost two years ago was found guilty Friday, November 3, 2023 in Caddo District Court.

The six-woman, six-man jury in District Judge Michael Pitman's courtroom deliberated a half-hour before returning its unanimous guilty-as-charged second-degree homicide verdict against Quinton Peace. The trial began Monday, October 30.

Peace, 24, and a co-defendant, who will stand trial in December, were accused of shooting and killing Chavez Parker, 29, December 21, 2021. They met at Parker's house in the 6600 block of Melara on a pretense of smoking marijuana.

Before meeting Parker, Peace armed himself with 9mm handguns and came up with a plan to rob the victim. Parker was shot four times in the upper body, including his head. Expert ballistics evidence showed that three of the four shots were fired from a gun in Peace's possession when he was arrested in Fort Worth, Texas, where he fled after the murder.

Testimony and evidence at the trial established that Peace returned to the crime scene about 10 minutes later due to concerns he had left evidence at the scene. Peace got into victim Parker's car and drove it to the Linwood Home Apartments, driving while seated on the lap of his dead victim, whom he could not move into the passenger seat. An eyewitness testified that when Peace returned to the apartment complex he was amused and laughing. As Peace was wiping the car down in the apartment parking lot he was spotted by two Shreveport Police officers on proactive patrol. That was when Peace fled to Texas.

Peace will return to Judge Pitman's court November 8, where he faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison at hard labor without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence.

Assistant District Attorneys Christopher Bowman and Sam Crichton prosecuted Peace, who was defended by Michael Enright and Stephen Folk-Cruthirds.

The case was docket No. 386867.