A Jefferson Parish jury convicted 24-year-old Jakobe Odoms of second-degree murder in the June 2022 shooting death of Larry Miller, a 54-year-old retired U.S. Army servicemember and Avondale shipyard worker who was killed at his Harvey apartment. Jurors also found Odoms guilty of attempted aggravated assault with a firearm after he pointed a pistol at Miller's mother during the same encounter.
The verdict came down after jurors deliberated for less than an hour and a half, according to the Jefferson Parish District Attorney's Office. Prosecutors said Odoms, of New Orleans, shot Miller twice as the older man answered a knock at his door on June 13, 2022, in what the DA's office described as a case rooted in domestic violence tied to Odoms' relationship with Miller's daughter.
Accounts of the fatal wounds differ slightly between sources. The Jefferson Parish District Attorney's Office described Miller being shot as he answered the door, while NOLA.com reported he was shot twice in the torso. Miller was pronounced dead after the shooting, and Odoms was later identified as a suspect, according to NOLA.com, which first reported his arrest in a separate article shortly after the killing.
Ballistics Tied Pistol to Earlier Algiers Shooting
Prosecutors presented ballistics evidence at trial connecting the weapon used to kill Miller to a separate shooting in Algiers. The DA's office said experts determined that the same pistol used in Miller's murder had also been used in that earlier incident, a detail that helped tie Odoms to the firearm despite the absence of other direct physical evidence.
Odoms' defense attorney pushed back hard on the state's case, arguing it was built entirely on circumstantial evidence. The attorney told jurors that no witnesses, fingerprints or DNA linked Odoms directly to the shooting, a defense that ultimately did not sway the panel, which returned its guilty verdicts on both counts.
Mandatory Life Sentence Looms
Odoms now faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison for the second-degree murder conviction. The district attorney's office said he is scheduled to be sentenced to that mandatory life term on Wednesday, Oct. 21, while NOLA.com reported the sentencing hearing was set for the same date before a judge it identified as Donald Rowan Jr.; the DA's office referred to the judge as Donnie Rowan. It remains unconfirmed which name is correct, and there is no available information yet on whether the sentencing has taken place.
Miller's death left a void in a family already dealing with the strain of a troubled relationship between his daughter and Odoms, according to the DA's office's characterization of the case as rooted in domestic violence. His decades of service in the Army and years of work at the Avondale shipyard were cited by NOLA.com in describing who he was before the shooting cut his life short at 54.
