Kayla Wooten’s case has not been resolved, while a reported proposal would reduce the charge against her if she testifies against two co-defendants, according to The Alexandria Town Talk. Wooten is charged in the shooting that killed 12-year-old Hope Alexandria Coleman and wounded Coleman’s father. The three defendants’ cases are pending in the 9th Judicial District Court in Rapides Parish, KALB reported.
The reported proposal, made Monday, would reduce Wooten’s charge in exchange for testimony against Deroyce May II and Latraykus May. The Town Talk said it was unclear from the supplied reports whether Wooten would formally accept the offer before trial.
Defendants and charges
Wooten, May II and May are accused in the Sept. 14, 2024, shooting at a Cypress Street residence in Alexandria. Wooten was arrested on Sept. 18, 2024; May and May turned themselves in to the Alexandria Police Department the next day, according to the department. All three were charged with second-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder and aggravated criminal damage to property, according to reports from the Rapides Parish Journal and The Town Talk.
The Town Talk reported that Wooten pleaded not guilty in January 2025 in an arraignment account describing manslaughter charges: Woman arraigned in death of Hope Coleman. Other supplied reports describe the defendants as facing second-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder and aggravated criminal damage to property.
What a testimony deal could mean
The Louisiana Supreme Court’s Judges Manual describes plea bargaining as seeking a reduced or changed charge in exchange for a guilty plea, but that general framework does not establish whether Wooten accepted the reported offer. The manual also notes an accused’s right to confront and cross-examine witnesses. In a 2013 report, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana noted that a jury knew an accomplice had made a deal with the state in exchange for testimony, illustrating how a witness’s benefit may be presented to jurors without establishing the disclosure procedure or outcome in Wooten’s case, according to the Louisiana Supreme Court’s Judges Manual and the federal court report. Louisiana’s Third Circuit Court of Appeal described a separate arrangement in State v. Pickens, decided in 1999, in which a defendant in a 1997 homicide case was allowed to plead guilty to reduced manslaughter in exchange for truthful testimony against a co-defendant. That case documents a prior Louisiana arrangement but does not establish the terms or outcome of the reported proposal involving Wooten.
Potential sentence
Second-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment at hard labor without parole, probation or suspension of sentence under Louisiana Revised Statutes § 14:30.1, according to the Louisiana State Legislature. The statute explains the severity of the charge at issue, but it does not independently establish the terms of the reported offer.
