A 66-year-old New Orleans man has been sentenced to 17 years in state prison for killing a man he had invited into his home, after a jury rejected his claim that he acted in self-defense. Tyrone Dewey was convicted in May of manslaughter and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in the June 2022 shooting death of 46-year-old Errol Cutno.
According to NOLA.com, Dewey's four-day trial in May 2026 stemmed from a case originally brought as second-degree murder by Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams' office. Dewey and Cutno reportedly knew each other from frequenting a car wash along Chef Menteur Highway, and Dewey had invited Cutno and a car wash worker to his home near Press Drive on the night of the shooting.
Dewey told police that he grew suspicious Cutno was trying to steal cash from his house, and that Cutno pulled a gun and demanded money. He claimed he shot Cutno while the two wrestled over the firearm, according to the same report. But prosecutors said his account did not match what surveillance footage from the scene actually showed.
Video Footage Undercut the Self-Defense Claim
Per NOLA.com's reporting, surveillance footage showed Dewey pursuing a fleeing Cutno, and police found a trail of blood leading from Cutno back to Dewey's residence. Cutno died from several gunshot wounds. That detail proved critical, since Louisiana's self-defense rules are addressed under La. R.S. 14:19 and 14:20, rather than in a specific Stand Your Ground statute.
The Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office laid out additional forensic detail in a statement released in May 2026. Although police never recovered the firearm used in the killing, gunshot residue testing connected Dewey to the shooting, and spent shell casings and ammunition found at the scene matched a weapon consistent with the incident, according to the Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office. The same statement noted that video evidence recorded after the shooting captured incriminating statements by Dewey, along with evidence suggesting attempts were made to conceal the weapon and alter the crime scene.
Jury Convicts on Manslaughter, Acquits on Obstruction
The jury ultimately returned a manslaughter conviction rather than the second-degree murder charge prosecutors originally sought, and it acquitted Dewey of obstructing justice. The office's announcement noted the conviction came during the same week as an unrelated fatal Bourbon Street shooting trial, as the Homicide Unit worked through a dual conviction week in mid-May.
District Judge Marcus DeLarge, who presided over the trial, sentenced Dewey to 10 years on the weapons conviction and ordered that sentence to run concurrently with the manslaughter term, citing Dewey's age and what he described as the atypical nature of the case. DeLarge told the courtroom that a mistake was made, but a life was lost and justice had to be handed out, according to NOLA.com. DeLarge was elected to Section K of the Orleans Parish Criminal District Court in December 2020 and took office that January, having previously worked as a criminal defense attorney in New Orleans, per Ballotpedia.
Louisiana law sets no mandatory minimum for manslaughter involving an adult victim, but a conviction under La. R.S. 14:31 carries a maximum of 40 years at hard labor — the sentence Cutno's family had requested. Assistant District Attorney Gabriel Balasquide told the court that Cutno did not deserve to die in the way he did. The felon-in-possession charge, meanwhile, falls under La. R.S. 14:95.1, which sets a mandatory range of 5 to 20 years at hard labor without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence.
Habitual Offender Hearing Looms in November
Dewey's attorney, Clarence Roby, represented him at trial as prosecutors now turn to a separate legal fight. Balasquide has said he plans to seek a higher sentence under Louisiana's habitual offender law, alleging Dewey is a three-time felon who faces a minimum 20-year sentence if the enhancement is granted. DeLarge has set a hearing for November 10 to consider the request.
The mechanism prosecutors intend to use, Louisiana Revised Statute 15:529.1, lets prosecutors file a post-conviction habitual offender bill of information that opens a separate proceeding to enhance minimum and maximum sentence ranges based on a defendant's prior felony convictions. Williams pledged during his 2020 campaign never to use the multi-bill statute, according to The Appeal.
Cutno's killing happened in 2022, when New Orleans recorded 266 homicides, before citywide homicides fell by more than half by mid-2026, according to WVUE FOX 8. Dewey and Cutno first crossed paths at a car wash on Chef Menteur Highway. Hoodline reported a shooting near the highway.
