The man who allegedly barricaded himself inside a trailer Thursday with two other people - one of them a child - has spent years behind bars in Louisiana, records show.
Nyjal Hurst was wanted on multiple warrants from multiple parishes when police went to the Martin Luther King Drive home last week, but he also had been wanted by Probation and Parole for more than a year, records show.
Here's what we found when we asked the Louisiana Department of Corrections to pull their records on him:
The oldest record we could find on him was from 2011, when he was 18 years old. In that case, he pleaded guilty to three drug charges, given a suspended sentence and placed on parole.
But during his probation, he failed to report to his probation officer and then was arrested again in December 2014. His probation was revoked in February 2015 and the original sentences in the drug case, which had been suspended, were imposed, plus he got another 10 years on the December 2014 arrest, in which he eventually pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit second-degree murder.
After serving the time for those convictions, he was released onto goodtime parole supervision on 3-30-2018. But he didn't do what he was ordered to do, and another warrant was issued for him in January 2019.
In June of that year, he was arrested in Texas, and transported back to Louisiana. In July 2019, that goodtime parole supervision was revoked, and he went back to prison to serve the rest of his time.
When that time was done, in April 2021, he was released on a detainer to Iberia and Livingston parishes, where he still had outstanding charges. He stayed in the Iberia Parish jail until he pleaded guilty to an assault charge and a weapons charge, for which he was sentenced to eight years. He got credit for the time he served on those charges, and was released on goodtime parole in October 2022.
Between that release and July 2023, he met all the conditions of his parole, and met with his parole officer almost a dozen times. But then another warrant was issued for his arrest after an event in Broussard, and he quit reporting. Since that time he's been wanted by Probation and Parole.
When police went to the home on Martin Luther King Drive last week they knew that Hurst was wanted by Jeanerette Police on warrants for Aggravated Second Degree Battery and Home Invasion, and on warrants from the St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office for Armed Robbery, Illegal Use of Weapons, Attempted Car Jacking, Domestic Abuse Battery Child Endangerment by Strangulation, and (2) Counts of Aggravated Battery.
He also is wanted on a fugitive warrant out of Lafayette Parish for failing to appear for his arraignment on a bill of information filed against him in October on charges of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, possession of cocaine, possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number, possession of a firearm in the presence of drugs, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and resisting arrest.
Here's the history we found last week:
In 2011, he was charged with two counts possession of a controlled dangerous substance, and pleaded guilty to a revised charge of attempted possession with intent to distribute to cocaine and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. That sentence was suspended, and he was given five years of probation. Within two years, his probation officer had filed a motion to revoke that probation. In 2015, it was revoked and he was sentenced to serve those 10 years in prison.
In 2012, he was charged with illegal use of weapons and aggravated criminal damage to property. A fugitive warrant was issued for him when he failed to appear for his trial, but eventually both charges were dismissed.
In 2015, Hurst was charged with attempted first-degree murder, possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine, aggravated flight from an officer and resisting an officer. After his arrest, he remained in the Iberia Parish Jail until he pleaded guilty to a revised charge of conspiracy to commit second-degree murder in August 2017. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison with credit for time served. All the other charges were dismissed following his guilty plea.
There were two cases in 2019.
Hurst was charged with four counts aggravated assault with a firearm, possession of a firearm by convicted felon, two counts criminal damage to property, harassing phone calls and battery on a dating partner. His trial was delayed multiple times, during which he was reportedly being held by the Department of Corrections. In 2022, he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault with a firearm and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
In exchange for his guilty plea, all the other charges were dropped. He was sentenced to four years without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence on the aggravated assault charge, and eight years on the firearm possession charge, with the sentences to be served concurrently, or at the same time.
Also in 2019, he was charged with aggravated flight from an officer when human life is endangered, illegal possession of stolen firearms and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. These charges were all dismissed in connection with the other 2019 case, following his guilty plea.
