A New Orleans jury has found Larry Pounds III guilty of second-degree murder in the September 2024 killing of Nolan Greathouse Sr., a 39-year-old father of six who was chased down and shot on Touro Street after a fight broke out at a nearby bar. Pounds now faces an automatic life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Pounds was convicted of the fatal shooting per the Orleans Parish District Attorney, according to WGNO. The dispute began as a verbal and physical confrontation on a bar's patio, and once it ended, Pounds armed himself with a rifle and chased Greathouse down the street, according to Crimesolvers Central. Greathouse tripped and fell behind a parked car, and Pounds opened fire on him at close range while he was on the ground, the outlet reports.
Greathouse had reportedly stepped into the confrontation to de-escalate a dispute involving a family friend, according to entity background reported by The Times-Picayune. He was a married father of six who owned Desire2Designs Customs, worked at Costco Wholesale in Covington, and had graduated from George Washington Carver High School.
A Fast Escape, Then a Multi-State Manhunt
Police arrived at the scene in less than a minute, but Pounds had already fled through nearby alleyways, per the same account from Crimesolvers Central. He escaped to Texas, where law enforcement officers eventually tracked and captured him several weeks later.
The case wasn't Pounds' first brush with New Orleans law enforcement. In January 2020, he was arrested by the NOPD Tactical Intelligence Gathering and Enforcement Response (TIGER) Unit in the city's Fifth District during an auto burglary investigation that recovered 13 firearms, according to NOPD News. Pounds was 23 years old at the time of that arrest.
Neck Tattoo Led Detectives to a Suspect
The investigation later drew national attention when it was featured on A&E's Homicide Squad New Orleans in August 2025, which detailed how NOPD detectives identified Pounds from surveillance video by matching a distinctive neck tattoo to his state ID photo. The case appeared in Season 2, Episode 7 of the series, as detailed by A&E.
Mandatory Life Sentence Under Louisiana Law
Under Louisiana Revised Statutes Section 14:30.1, a second-degree murder conviction carries an automatic mandatory sentence of life imprisonment at hard labor without the benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence, according to the Louisiana State Legislature. Judges have no discretion to reduce or alter that sentence once a conviction is entered.
Prosecutors also relied on a specific provision of the same statute, R.S. 14:30.1(C), which creates a rebuttable legal presumption of specific intent to kill or inflict great bodily harm when a person points and discharges a firearm at another person. Proving specific intent is otherwise required under paragraph A(1) of the state's homicide statute.
A Drop in Crimes Against Persons
Officer.com reported that crimes against persons in New Orleans were down 32 percent from 2023 and that NOPD's Homicide Section had a nearly 98 percent clearance rate in 2026, according to Officer.com.
For Greathouse's family, the conviction carries weight beyond this single case. Public statements shared on Facebook indicate Greathouse was the third family member his mother has lost to murder in New Orleans, with relatives noting online that his case was the first of the three to yield a conviction.
