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A Louisiana man has been convicted of killing a transgender woman and her boyfriend, seven years to the day after their deaths.
Milan Boudreaux and her boyfriend, Akeem Boudreaux, were both fatally shot in the head in their apartment in Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans, February 5, 2013. Their bodies were not discovered until nine days later. On Wednesday, Melvin Miller, 27, of Baton Rouge, was convicted as charged on two counts of second-degree murder, obstruction of justice, and being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, The Times-Picayune of New Orleans reports.
“It’s so disturbing that someone could walk into the home of two unarmed people and execute them,” Assistant District Attorney Lindsay Truhe told jurors at the Jefferson Parish Courthouse in Gretna at the end of the two-day trial, according to the paper. “It’s so disturbing that someone could put a gun to the back of their heads and pull a trigger.”
Miller was arrested after the couple’s car was found at his home when police responded to a report of a dispute between him and his girlfriend, Jasmine Alexander. He also had Milan Boudreaux’s cell phone and laptop computer. Police and prosecutors believe he met Milan Boudreaux online.
Miller’s defense attorneys, who deadnamed Milan Boudreaux during the trial, argued that Miller’s possession of the car, laptop, and phone didn’t mean he murdered the couple. “There is no proof that Melvin Miller was in that apartment,” attorney Marquita Naquin told the jury.
But prosecutors had records of phone calls between Miller and the trans woman, and a call between him and Alexander in which he appeared relieved that Alexander had thrown away bullets she had found in their apartment. He also was known to have been in New Orleans the day of the murders.
Alexander pleaded guilty in 2015 to obstruction of justice by discarding the bullets and was sentenced to five years’ probation.
Miller is scheduled to be sentenced February 20. He is expected to receive life in prison.
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