A New Orleans jury has convicted 63-year-old Mark Pohlen of second-degree murder and aggravated assault with a firearm in the shooting death of Cheryl Squire, the 59-year-old social worker who had helped him find permanent housing before he killed her on her own front porch. Jurors rejected Pohlen's claim that he acted in self-defense, delivering the verdict in a case that unfolded on the 3900 block of General Taylor Street in the city's Broadmoor neighborhood.
According to WGNO, Pohlen called 911 himself on the night of October 2, 2025, and told the dispatcher that he had been attacked, but insisted no weapons were involved and that no one was in danger. That account quickly fell apart. A separate caller reported hearing two gunshots and seeing someone bleeding on the steps, and Squire's niece called for an ambulance after reporting that her aunt had been shot. New Orleans Police Department officers arriving at the scene found Squire suffering from multiple gunshot wounds; EMS pronounced her dead on the porch, according to WWL Louisiana. NOPD took Pohlen into custody at the scene.
A Helping Hand That Turned Fatal
Squire had opened her home to Pohlen and helped him find permanent housing, the kind of work that defined her career, per WGNO's reporting. She held a bachelor's degree from Loyola University New Orleans and a master's degree from the University of Phoenix, credentials she put to use as a social worker in the community, according to The Times-Picayune. Squire was also a fixture at James Chapel Baptist Church, where she served as church secretary, director of Vacation Bible School, and an usher, and she belonged to the Order of the Eastern Star, according to an obituary published by Davis Mortuary Service.
That night, Squire called her sister, Rose Bourgeois, and two other women went to the General Taylor Street home, WGNO reports. What happened between Squire and Pohlen in the moments before the shooting was not detailed in court reporting, but the jury's verdict makes clear it found no basis for his claim of self-defense.
Prosecutor: Generosity Should Not Invite Violence
Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams addressed the case directly, saying a gun can turn a temporary conflict into an irreversible loss in seconds. He added that no person should have generosity answered with violence, and no one should be made unsafe in her own home, per WGNO.
Pohlen's conviction on second-degree murder triggers a sentencing outcome with no room for judicial discretion. Under Louisiana Revised Statute 14:30.1, a second-degree murder conviction carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment at hard labor, without the possibility of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence, according to the Louisiana State Legislature. His companion conviction for aggravated assault with a firearm under La. R.S. 14:37.4 carries its own exposure of up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000, according to Sudduth & Associates, though that sentence will be secondary to the mandatory life term.
Louisiana's Outlier Sentencing Law
Louisiana's mandatory life-without-parole statute for second-degree murder makes it a national outlier. A 2024 study by The Sentencing Project found the state leads the country and comparable global jurisdictions in per capita rates of prisoners serving life without parole, with more than 4,000 inmates serving such sentences and over half of them convicted of second-degree murder. Louisiana is one of only two states that automatically imposes life without parole for the offense, meaning Pohlen's sentence, once formally handed down, will carry no path to release regardless of circumstance.
Squire's killing occurred during a violent stretch across Orleans Parish, which saw three separate fatal shootings in a matter of days, including a domestic-related homicide on Louisa Street and a murder-suicide in New Orleans East, according to reporting cited in local coverage. NOPD detectives moved quickly to make arrests in two of the three cases.
The General Taylor Street address sits within Broadmoor, an Uptown residential corridor that has seen other homicide investigations in recent years, including a separate fatal shooting in the 3600 block in August 2022 that Hoodline has previously reported remains unsolved. NOPD crime data released the week of Pohlen's arrest showed citywide illegal firearm possession arrests were down 41% year-to-date compared to 2024, while firearm seizures were down 19%, even as fatal gun violence remained an acute problem in neighborhoods like Broadmoor.
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