A New Orleans judge has ruled that a pistol tied to the January 14, 2024 shooting that killed Belle Chasse stunt rider Seth Chedville can be used as evidence, a major win for prosecutors building the high-profile murder case. In Orleans Criminal District Court on Tuesday, Judge Camille Buras admitted the handgun that prosecutors say was used in the New Orleans East gas-station ambush. Detectives told the court the pistol was seized during a raid and later matched by ballistics testing to shell casings from the scene.
Judge says video and police work justified the gun seizure
According to NOLA.com, Buras found that surveillance footage and follow-up investigation gave officers enough cause to detain a suspect and search him. Detective Makayla Dulaney testified she watched real-time crime-center video that showed a man in the gas-station lot adjusting something in his pants shortly before gunfire erupted, the court heard. Prosecutors told the judge that the pistol recovered from that suspect was later linked by ballistics to the casings left behind at the station.
Shell station scene, teen victim and SWAT raid
Chedville, 18, was shot in the parking lot of a Shell station at Chef Menteur Highway and Downman Road and died the next morning at University Medical Center, according to local reporting. Community members who knew him as a popular stunt rider from Belle Chasse have been turning out at early court hearings, underscoring how closely watched the case has become. Investigators later carried out a SWAT raid at a Skyview Drive home, where they seized multiple firearms. Authorities said several of those guns were ballistically linked to the attack, as reported by Fox 8.
Teen defendant, co-accused and connected cases
Prosecutors say Robbie Johnson, 18, is one of four people indicted on first-degree murder and attempted-murder charges tied to the New Orleans East shooting, and they contend the pistol admitted Tuesday was recovered from Johnson during the investigation, according to NOLA.com. Other defendants face attempted-murder counts in separate central-business-district shootings that police say investigators linked to the Chedville case while probing an alleged auto-theft ring. With the pistol now formally in evidence, prosecutors will be able to present both ballistics findings and surveillance footage to a judge or jury if the case reaches trial.
What the ruling means for the case
At earlier hearings, defense attorneys argued that prosecutors were relying heavily on circumstantial evidence and that investigators had not clearly tied any one defendant to pulling the trigger, Fox 8 reported. Admitting the pistol gives prosecutors a way to marry their ballistics results with the surveillance timeline as they lay out their theory of the shooting. The case remains pending in Orleans Criminal District Court, and a trial date has not yet been set.
