Scott MacLeod

Bayou Tales
(from some law-school textbook)

1.

Charlie Boudreaux worked as a driver and mechanic for an automobile repair shop and emergency towing service in Lake Charles. He loved his job and the opportunity to help drivers in distress. One day, Boudreaux discovered that his boss, Jack Thibodeaux, was about to fire him. Boudreaux was so angered by this development that he devised a scheme to kill Thibodeaux.

Repairs are performed in the shop's state-of-the-art garage. Stored on shelves above the garage floor are tires, auto parts, heavy cans of motor oil, transmission fluid, and the like. A hydraulic lift is used to raise cars so that a mechanic can work under their chassis. The lift is controlled from a control panel located on the periphery of the garage floor. Boudreaux had discovered that, if the red and blue buttons on the control panel were pressed simultaneously, the hydraulic lift would fall to the ground. Boudreaux planned to wait until Thibodeaux was working near or under a car, push the appropriate buttons, and cause Thibodeaux to be crushed to death.

On the day he planned to kill Thibodeaux, Boudreaux woke early and set out to the shop on foot. It was, by coincidence, Election Day. Boudreaux passed a public school where the polls were just opening. The sidewalk outside the school was crowded with people. A voter who was wearing a "Duplechien for Dogcatcher" button had blocked Boudreaux's path. Boudreaux violently pushed the voter out of the way, saying, "anyone who votes for Duplechien is a fool and should be hanged."

Boudreaux then continued on his way. A few blocks down the street, a slowly moving panel truck pulled to the curb in front of him. The back door of the truck opened and a man in dark sunglasses emerged. The back of the truck was filled with unboxed, stolen televisions, VCRs, and stereo equipment. The man asked Boudreaux if he was interested in buying any "prime merchandise." Boudreaux asked, "this stuff isn't stolen, is it?" The man laughed and told him it was not. Boudreaux bought a VCR for $50.

At 9:00 a.m., Boudreaux arrived at work. As he punched in at the time clock, he read the following notice posted on the employee bulletin board:

Reminder: Miss Calandro's First Grade Class will be visiting the shop today. They are expected to arrive at approximately 9:00 a.m. and will be watching Jack Thibodeaux repair a car. All employees are reminded to use particular care in the garage while the students are present.

Boudreaux remembered how much he had detested Miss Calandro when she was his own first grade teacher some fifteen years before. Although he had no desire to kill or injure her, he decided that it would be fun to give her a "little scare."

At 9:05 a.m., Boudreaux received a call from a driver whose car was stuck in the mud beside a rapidly flooding bayou and needed to be towed in a hurry. Boudreaux told the driver that he was "on his way."

At 9:09, Miss Calandro's class arrived and was ushered into the garage by Thibodeaux. As the demonstration began, Thibodeaux was standing under a hoisted Jeep Cherokee, Miss Calandro was standing under the shelf where the parts were stored, and the first graders were standing between the two of them.

In accordance with his plan to scare Miss Calandro, Boudreaux then pushed several cans of motor oil off the shelf where they were stored. One hit a five-year old boy and seriously injured him, although Boudreaux was not aware of this fact, since his view was obscured by the Jeep.

Boudreaux then decided that the time was ripe for killing Thibodeaux. Just as he was about to cause the lift to drop, however, Boudreaux was pushed from behind, as a joke, by Landry, the shop's office manager. Boudreaux fell on the control panel, hitting the red and blue buttons. The hydraulic lift dropped to the floor. It missed Thibodeaux, but seriously injured a second student.

Boudreaux was arrested and taken into custody. An hour or so later, the driver of the broken-down car, still waiting for Boudreaux to arrive, drowned when the bayou rose suddenly and violently.

2.

On the morning of October 1, Charlie Boudreaux was released from the custody of Angola State Prison, where he had served three years for his conviction under Art. 69(B)(1) of the La. Criminal Code. (He had been acquitted of the other charges against him.) Hardened by his experiences at Angola, Charlie emerged an angry and bitter man.

Within two hours of his release, Boudreaux bought a used pick-up truck and hurried to visit his old girlfriend, Mary Jean "Trixie" Triché. When he arrived at Trixie's apartment in Shreveport, however, Boudreaux was told that Trixie had taken up with a new boyfriend, Jack Thibodeaux, and was now living with Jack at his house in East Baton Rouge Parish.

Furious, Boudreaux jumped in the pick-up truck and headed to Blackie Hymel's Gun 'N' Gumbo Shop. There, he purchased a hunting rifle, several hand grenades, and the latest issue of Soldier of Fortune Magazine.

Boudreaux then got back in the truck, drove for approximately three hours, and arrived at Jack and Trixie's property shortly after 3:00 p.m. The Thibodeaux house was built in the classic Louisiana "shotgun" style. Trixie used the front half of the house as a gift shop in which she sold Cajun souvenirs. She and Jack used the back of the house as their living quarters.

As Boudreaux was arriving, several customers were leaving Trixie's shop. Clutching the rifle to his side, Boudreaux got out of his truck and entered the front door of the building. He found himself standing in the midst of shelves holding Zydeco compact disks and records, Cajun cookbooks and spices, and other South Louisiana memorabilia.

Trixie, who had been checking inventory in the back room, came out to see who was there. She saw Boudreaux standing in the middle of the room, although she could not see the gun he was holding in his hand.

"Go away, Charlie Boudreaux, I don't love you anymore, " she told him. "Jack is my man now. You are a loser, Boudreaux, and you'll always be a loser."

Boudreaux's face turned red as a boiled crawfish. He grabbed a heavy pelican figurine from a nearby shelf and threw it to the floor. The figurine broke into a dozen pieces, shards of porcelain flying into the air. One of the shards ricocheted off a wall, struck Trixie in the throat, and severed a carotid artery. Trixie died almost instantly.

Boudreaux ran out of the store, jumped into his truck, and headed for New Orleans. He was apprehended by Louisiana State Police about an hour later, as he was passing by Oak Alley Plantation.

3.

Following the untimely death of his girlfriend, Trixie Landrieu, Jack Thibodeaux became deeply despondent. He sold his and Trixie’s businesses, moved into a basement efficiency apartment, and spent his days lying in bed with the shades drawn, listening to Elvis records, and taking the medicines prescribed for his chronic depression.

On the afternoon of November 16, Thibodeaux was feeling so law that he drank a glass of whiskey and took twice the prescribed dosage of his medicine (the label of which specifically indicated that it should not be taken with alcohol).

Within minutes, Thibodeaux began hallucinating. He heard what he believed to be the voice of Trixie’s ghost tell him to go to the Ted Stick Stockyard, steal a prize bull, slaughter and barbeque it.

Thibodeaux thought to himself, “[o]f course, I have no choice but to do what dear Trixie’s ghost tells me to do, but I can’t understand why she would want me to break the law in this way.”

Thibodeaux then took a cattle prod from his tool shed, got in his pickup truck, drove to the stockyard and arrived at 4:50 p.m., twenty minutes after the stockyard had closed for the day. He parked his truck and, concealing the cattle prod under his jacket, walked through the door of the yard. Although the hours of operation were clearly posted on the door, Thibodeaux did not read them, and he believed that the stockyard was open until 5:00 p.m.

As Thibodeaux entered the stockyard, he saw in front of him a fenced pen holding several bulls. The yard was strangely quiet. The only noise that could be heard was the mooing of the cattle. Thibodeaux walked toward the pen.

As he peered over the fence, he was shocked to see Marguerite “Maggie” Babineaux, an old college girlfriend, former LSU Golden Girl, and now head of a notorious cattle rustler gang. Babineaux, who was armed with an automatic weapon, was well known in South Louisiana for having recently led a murderous raid on the rival Guidry Cattle Rustler Gang. Beside Babineaux, lying face down on the dirt floor, were several cattlemen and stockyard employees. One of these cattlemen was Claude Rene “Tres” Cormier, III, a veteran of Operation Desert Storm and a former Tulane football player.

“Long time no see, Jack,” Babineaux said. “How fortunate you’ve dropped in. I could use a little help with this heist. Open the gate of the pen and lead the bulls through the back door of the stockyard, into my van waiting outside.”

Then Babineaux said, “[i]f you don’t do as I say, I will kill your entire family, just like I killed the Guidry Gang.”

Thibodeaux was terrified by this threat. He opened the gate, and began leading the bulls out of the stockyard. Just then, Tres Cormier lifted himself off the floor, came up behind Thibodeaux, and lunged at him with a knife. Seeing Cormier lunge, Thibodeaux turned and swung the cattle prod at him, causing a wound in Cormier’s chest.

Visibly furious at this turn of events, Babineaux fired a warning shot in the air, pointed her gun at Thibodeaux, and shouted, “[g]ive me the cattle prod, Jack. If you give it to me, I won’t hurt you.” At this point, Thibodeaux swung the cattle prod wildy, and hit Babineaux in the forehead, killing her.