Who murdered her 15-year-old son, and why? 7 years later, she still feels in the dark – The Advocate

Katrina Augusta had been passing out fliers about her son, who had been missing for five days, when she got a call that the Ascension Parish sheriff was at her house in Donaldsonville.

Brandon, 15, had left his grandmother's house in Donaldsonville on a Saturday morning. He had not been seen since.

Augusta hoped then-Sheriff Jeff Wiley had positive news.

"Nobody was saying anything, and I couldnt understand that," Katrina Augusta said.

Only rumors had been flying around, sending sheriff's detectives on dead ends, Augusta said. Her son was in Baton Rouge; no, he was here; no, he went with those guys there.

The talk wasn't true. Her son, a freshman at Donaldsonville High, had been brutally beaten and killed that Saturday, the sheriff told her.

Brandon's badly decomposed body had been found days later. It had been covered with driftwoodbehind the Mississippi River levee she had driven past the crime scene on the way home to see the sheriff.

That was more than seven years ago, in mid-August 2014. For Katrina and her mom, Audrey, the years since that August day with the sheriff have been a long wait for justice.

Four male suspects were arrested 10 months after the killing, including two juvenile teens. But there have been years of delays, hearings, and back-and-forth appeals.

Now Brandon's case appears to be moving again.

This fall, two defendants took pleas deals in his death, one for a misdemeanor and one for manslaughter. After a delay in late November, another of Augusta's accused killers, Marcus Ester, was set last week for a late April trial.

But Brandon's mother and grandmother said they are still waiting for a better understanding about why he was killed. And they still don't know what brought him to that levee with the youths, some of whom Katrina says he didn't know or didn't care for.

Ascension Parish Sheriffs Office Chief Deputy Tony Bacala has confirmed that a body that was found last Thursday afternoon, August 14, along the levee in Donaldsonville is that of 15-year-old Brandon Augusta.

Life, work and the raising of Brandon's younger brother go on, while they wait for answers.

"But now, but now Im just wondering after so long, why did it take so long? Why is it taking so long for this situation? As a parent, a grieving mother, you know, Im still going through a lot and knowing that I dont have closure. I dont have the justice that I need for my son, and its been that way," Katrina Augusta said.

Ester's defense attorney, David Belfield III, maintains that his client had nothing to do with the slaying and didn't even know Brandon Augusta.

Like defense attorneys for others accused in the case, he claims prosecutors have had little to no evidence linking his client to the slaying no fingerprints and no DNA. Belfield claimed the prosecutors are relying on the shaky testimony of one witness also accused in the case who came forward after a cash reward was offered to the public for information.

In September, one of the then-juvenile defendants, Kaglin Green, who was initially charged with second-degree murder, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of criminal mischief with a three-month prison sentence.

His defense attorney, Travis Turner, has also maintained that his client had nothing to do with the slaying. Court papers show he had pressed for years for his client's release and a trial, asserting that prosecutors had no evidence.

With a misdemeanor, no plea document was filed in the court record in September. But Turner said Monday his client has not agreed to testify because he doesn't know anything.

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Assistant District Attorney Kenneth Dupaty declined to comment about the case. A spokesman for 23rd Judicial District Attorney Ricky Babin has not returned requests for comment since late last year.

At the time of the arrests in June 2015, Sheriff Wiley and detectives said the five friends had been smoking synthetic marijuana behind the levee, some got in an argument and four went on a "Mojo"-fueled rampage that led to Augusta's death.

Wiley said at the time that driftwood and chunks of concrete were the potential weapons of opportunity in a savage bludgeoning that continued after the fatal blow to Brandon's head.

In court papers last summer, though, prosecutors put forth a somewhat different story. They alleged that Ester, then 20, and another defendant, Kahlil Howard, then 16, had lured Brandon behind the levee to buy or smoke marijuana, then beat and choked him to death.

In prosecuting Howard on Brandon's death, prosecutors claimed he had lured another victim, three years later, behind the Donaldsonville levee "under the guise of smoking or selling marijuana."

Once behind the levee, prosecutors allege, Howard forced the man out of his vehicle at gunpoint and placed him on his knees. The man ran. Howard shot him several times but the man survived, prosecutors allege in court papers.

Howard has pleaded not guilty to the attempted first-degree murder and armed robbery charges in connection with the 2017 allegations.At the time of the 2017 attempted murder, Howard was out on bail for his then-second-degree murder charge in Brandon's slaying.

Howard's defense attorneys had argued prosecutors' bid to mention the 2017 shooting had turned the state's prior bad acts exception on its head. The bad act prosecutors were seeking to use against Howard came three yearsafterBrandon was killed and had a somewhat different method for the slaying.

In August, Judge Cody Martin of the 23rd Judicial District Court allowed the 2017 allegations to be mentioned at any trial for Brandon's 2014 slaying. On Nov. 9, three weeks before Howard's trial, he pleaded guilty to the reduced charge of manslaughter.

Howard, who is now 24, is awaiting a sentence. Under his plea, it can be no more than 20 years in prison. Prosecutors also agreed to not use the conviction as evidence of a prior bad act in the 2017 attempted murder and robbery case.

In a one-sentence admission, Howard said he participated in a fight that led to Brandon's death, shedding no new light on what happened or why.

Unlike the two other defendants, Belfield, the defense attorney, said his client, Ester has no intention of taking a plea. Now 28 years old, Ester has sat in prison for years awaiting the trial now scheduled to start in three months.

Were Brandon alive today, he would be 23. His birthday was Jan. 9.

His loss has been a hard one to heal, his mother and grandmother say.

His football jersey, his jacket, some pictures and other mementos of Brandon still can stir those bad feelings.

People often tell Katrina Augusta that time heals wounds, she said, but it hasn't yet.

When his Donaldsonville High classmates graduated in May 2018, a pre-graduation awards ceremony included a brief video about Brandon. Though she never got the chance to read it, Katrina still has saved the hand-written statement she had prepared to read at the ceremony, a memory of who her son was.

"And so Im more or less just waiting, wanting this to be over, and wanting him to get justice, wanting him to get justice," Katrina Augusta said. "Thats all I can say right now. I, I, I and closure. Because prolonging the situation of who did what to my son and why, I may not ever find out why and who did what."

Editors note: A previous version of this story incorrectly said Kahlil Howard had been tried in Brandon Augusta's case; he took a plea deal.

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Who murdered her 15-year-old son, and why? 7 years later, she still feels in the dark - The Advocate