A man charged with capital murder in the death of a 7-year-old girl in Houston has ties to Acadiana.
Authorities say 24-year-old Larry D. Woodruffe fatally shot Jazmine Barnes on Dec. 30 as she and her family drove to a grocery store. Twenty-year-old Eric Black Jr. is said to have been the driver of the vehicle.
Prosecutors say Woodruffe and Black mistakenly thought they were attacking people they had fought at a club hours earlier when they shot at Jazmine and her family, the Associated Press reports.
According to Jeff Davis Parish District Attorney Michael Cassidy, police stopped Black for speeding in March 2017 when he was 18. Police searched his vehicle and found a gun with an obliterated number in the glove compartment.
A year later when he was 19, Black was allowed to plead to the amended charge of illegal carrying of a firearm: a misdemeanor. He was sentenced to one year of probation with conditions that he pay a fine and court costs of approximately $1000.00, forfeit the gun, and comply with other various conditions. He paid all monies due by June 2018.
