On Wednesday, April 18th, an Evangeline Parish jury found a Ville Platte man guilty of possessing a firearm as a convicted felon and possessing a firearm with obliterated serial numbers.
Its decision was made after a day and a half of criminal trial proceedings took place in 13th Judicial District Judge Gary Ortego’s courtroom. The defendant in this matter, Steveniski Frank, represented himself, while he State of Louisiana’s case was presented to the jury by Evangeline Parish First Assistant District Attorney Marcus Fontenot.
Frank was first arrested for possessing a firearm in October of 2017 after his mother called to report a disturbance and to request that local law enforcement remove Frank from her home. When officers arrived, Frank had left the scene, but then was later located walking down the street not far from him mother’s home.
During the trial, one officer involved in the arrest of the defendant testified that when he came in contact with Frank, the defendant at first said that the duffle bag he was carrying was his. However, Frank’s sister arrived at the scene the defendant tried to pass the bag off to her and then began to say the duffle bag where the gun was found belonged to his sister.
During the trial, the State presented surveillance footage from the officer’s body camera to corroborate the his testimony. The camera footage showed Frank being removed from the VPPD unit when officers arrived at the police department, and also surveillance footage of Frank being searched, which is when officers located shotgun shells in the suspects pockets.
During the questioning of trial witnesses, the defendant made an effort to prove that his arrest was prompted by the fact that days before he was picked up a story was printed in the Ville Platte Gazette about a lawsuit the defendant filed against the City of Ville Platte and its police department. The suit was a result of the Department of Justice report that said the VPPD had been illegally detaining individuals.
This argument, however, was a dead end for the defendant due to the fact that it was not relevant to answering whether Frank did or did not possess a firearm as a convicted felon when he was arrested last October.
Now that Frank has been found guilty, the next step in this matter will require the defendant to be sentenced for his crimes. For possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, Frank could receive a maximum of 20 years at hard labor, while for the charge of possession of a firearm with obliterated serial numbers, the defendant could receive a maximum of five years at hard labor.
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ELIZABETH WEST