For killing the mother of his 10-month-old son in front of him, Louisiana man pleads guilty

A Sorrento man faces 40 years in state prison after admitting this week to chasing down and fatally shooting the mother of his child in the face nearly eight years ago while she was in her car and their 10-month-old son sat in the back seat.

Jarvis Lance McNair, 33, took a plea deal from Ascension Parish prosecutors, admitting to manslaughter, a crime of passion and avoiding the risk of a life sentence if he had been convicted of second-degree murder.

At the time of the plea, a state district judge was still deciding whether to allow prosecutors to raise at trial past alleged threatening run-ins that McNair had with his slain girlfriend, Shondrica Dejoie, a New Orleans native from Gentilly who was living in Gonzales.

McNair had been scheduled for a second-degree murder trial on April 23 in Gonzales in Dejoie's death after his case had lingered in the courts for years.

McNair, who has been ordered back to jail following the plea this week, had been out of jail for nearly 2½ years on $200,000 bail after winning the right to bond in early 2021. By the time he made bail in late 2021, he had spent nearly 5½ years in pretrial detention.

At the time of the 2016 slaying, deputies said McNair had chased down and stopped Dejoie in her car on La. 22 in the Sorrento area in the predawn hours of July 5 after she had just picked up their son from a visit with McNair.

McNair pulled onto the shoulder alongside her vehicle under the Interstate 10 overpass in Sorrento. He got out of his vehicle, walked around to Dejoie’s door and shot her shortly before 2 a.m., deputies said at the time.

After the slaying, McNair called 911, remained on the scene and was administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation when deputies arrived, prosecutors said.

McNair told deputies and later prosecutors that the shooting was accidental, but prosecutors said that defense has shifted over time.

Assistant District Attorney Phil Maples said McNair first told deputies that his pistol went off while it was lying on the front dash after he had parked next to Dejoie on La. 22 near Interstate 10.

An autopsy later showed Dejoie had been shot in her face under her chin. Maples said that finding suggested she had turned her head to face McNair out of her window while seated in her car and probably couldn't have been hit by the gun on McNair's dash.

McNair then claimed that he pulled out what he thought was his cellphone while talking to Dejoie and accidentally shot her, Maples said.

In an attempt to counter the accidental shooting defense, prosecutors had been seeking to introduce at trial incidents in November 2015 and on Christmas Day 2015 in which McNair had allegedly pulled out a gun during arguments with Dejoie.

In the first incident, he also allegedly fired the gun and shot a wall. For the second gun incident on Christmas Day, he had a warrant out for his arrest from Gonzales Police at the time of Dejoie's slaying.

Prosecutors were also seeking to introduce text messages from three days before the slaying, on July 2, 2016, in which Dejoie asked McNair why he was trying "to bother" her and reminded him that he "pulled a gun out on me twice and shot once … im not ur enemy."

Defense attorneys argued the gun incidents were hearsay allegations from a third party or Dejoie alone, who could not be cross-examined, and would prejudice jurors. The November 2015 incident had no police report associated with it but had been recounted to one of Dejoie's friends.

Attorneys also questioned the seriousness of the arrest warrant for the second incident. In court papers, attorneys said McNair didn't even know about it and that Dejoie continued to maintain contact with him and never informed police of his whereabouts while the warrant was pending.

They also argued that the text messages prosecutors wanted to present to jurors were immediately followed up with a request by Dejoie for McNair to watch their child on July 2, 2016, undercutting how serious the gun allegations really were.

In the plea agreement reached Tuesday, McNair admitted to engaging in a high-speed chase with Dejoie, blocking her from getting onto Interstate 10 in Sorrento, and getting out and shooting her in "sudden passion or heat of blood."

"I think he meant to kill her, but I think he was in the heat of passion. I do think manslaughter was a good charge there," said Maples, the prosecutor.

McNair's defense attorney wasn't immediately available for comment Wednesday and early Thursday.

Dejoie's family members are expected to deliver victim impact statements on July 9, just days after the eighth anniversary of her slaying.

Judge Cody Martin, of the 23rd Judicial District, set McNair's sentencing for Aug. 13 and ordered him into sheriff's deputies’ custody. He was in parish jail Thursday.