Jody Plauché, Gary’s 11-year-old son, took karate lessons from 25-year-old Jeffrey Doucet in 1983 and 1984. Jeffrey had been se*xually ab*using Gary for at least a year. In February 1984, Doucet kidnapped Jody and took him to a California motel where he assaulted and mistreated him se*xually. When Doucet allowed the boy to make a collect call to his mother from the motel, the police were finally able to locate Jody after searching the entire nation for him. Without making any attempt at adventure, California police raided the motel and took Doucet into custody.
On March 16, 1984:
To appear in court, Doucet was transported back from California to the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport. Around 9:30 p.m., Plauché was waiting for Doucet with a gun in the airport. Plauché was led through the airport by police officers while Doucet was in handcuffs.
A reporter for the local ABC affiliate WBRZ-TV gave Plauché the information; a news team from WBRZ-TV was waiting for Doucet and had set up their cameras to report his appearance. Opposite the news team was a bank of pay telephones, where Plauché stayed while speaking to the reporter. Many people thought that Plauché’s friends with many high-ranking police officers in the Baton Rouge Police Station told Plauché where and when Doucet would be coming.
Doucet passed the news crew that was covering the incident as they were being led through the airport. He then moved past Plauché, who pulled out his gun and immediately fired a single shot at point-blank range at the right side of Doucet’s head.
Doucet died the next day
Plauché was originally charged with second-degree mur*der, but he accepted a plea deal and pleaded no contest to manslaughter instead. He was given a seven-year suspended sentence, five years of probation, and 300 hours of community service, which he completed in 1989.
After it was discovered that Doucet had ab*used Jody months prior to the kidnapping, psychological summaries aided Plauché’s defense. Plauché, who killed Doucet, couldn’t tell the difference between right and wrong, according to Edward P. Uzee’s evaluation of him. The defense team for Plauché asserted that after learning of his son’s ab*use, he was temporarily driven into a psychotic state. Uzee added that Doucet had the ability to influence people and had taken advantage of the fact that Plauché was divorcing his wife at the time to insinuate himself into the Plauché household. Plauché would not benefit from being imprisoned, according to Judge Frank Saia, and there was almost no chance that he would commit another crime.
