Real Life Real Crime - Life on Death Row

quote:

---

Anyone that has listened to this or knows about the case of Joseph Cook Owen, what neighborhood did they live in?

They said they found the kid near Magnolia Beach in Livingston but all 3 involved were in EBR. Which has to be Central/Greenwell Springs.

---

YEs. I'm VERY familiar with this case. Joseph was my oldest brothers friend. This happened on Mullen Drive in Village St George.

You google his name and you'll find the court docs detailing what they did that boy. Horrible.

Basically two gay dudes(older and younger) lived together on Mullen. They got Joseph to come over to the house and drink beer and smoke cigs. Then they forced him to give them BJs and made him puke. He tried to escape from the bathroom window after puking and they dragged him back in the house. They tied him up and promised him they were going to drop him off somewhere and let him go just so they could have time to get away. But this was a lie. He was shot in the face with a shotgun and left him out there by the Magnolia Beach.

Take these statements with grain of salt. The facts are consistent but each of them blamed the other for a while. You can find plenty articles in the Advocate Archives about the case.

Justia State v Copeland 1988 appeal. Has details of incident

quote:

---

Copeland stated that he did not have sex with the child; that he stayed in the living room during that time period and went out to the 7-11 Convenience Store for a time. At 3:00 or 3:30 Saturday morning, Brooks brought the child from the bedroom; Brooks tied the child and Copeland gagged him. Brooks then wanted Copeland to go with him and the child to make sure the child did not jump out of the car; Copeland stated that Brooks had given the boy a sleeping aid, Nytol. Brooks had brought Copeland's shotgun with him. They drove out to the field where Brooks untied and ungagged the child. Brooks then took the gun from Copeland who had carried it to the field. At this point, Copeland told Brooks that he wanted no part of this and ran toward the car which was parked about one hundred yards away. When he had run part of the distance to the car, Copeland heard three shotgun blasts; he turned around and saw the child fall toward the right. Brooks then brought the gag and rope back to the car; Copeland threw them from the car window as Brooks and he drove home.

Subsequent to giving the oral statement above, Copeland gave a taped statement, the gist of which is the same as the oral statement. At the conclusion of the taped statement, Copeland agreed that there were neither threats nor coercion to give the statement; that the statement was voluntarily given. Copeland also noted that he did not want to see Brooks at all, "I don't want to talk to him at all or nothing." Copeland was then arrested for first degree murder, aggravated rape, crimes against nature and being a fugitive from Livingston Parish.

Later that day, Copeland agreed to accompany officers to the crime scene where a videotape of the area was made.

On Tuesday, July 10, 1979, Copeland gave a second taped statement which is inconsistent with the first. In this latter statement, Copeland related that both he and Brooks were in the bedroom with the child; that Brooks took off the child's pants and Copeland took off the child's shorts; that both he and Brooks had sexual acts with the child.

Copeland then revealed that at one point the child became ill and the men let him go to the bathroom. Once in there, the child tried to escape through a window but Copeland prevented the escape by kicking in the bathroom door and taking the child back into the bedroom where more sexual acts were performed. At 3:00 or 3:30 a.m., after they tied and gagged the child, they took him to the field where Copeland shot himat least twice. Copeland further stated that "I wasn't sure I was going to kill him until after I pulled the trigger, I didn't know whether I could do it or not."

---

I'm pretty sure this weighed on my dad's mind back in the day! I remember it as well since it was in our neighborhood.

quote:

---

Village St. George? Where is that?

---

God damn dude. I linked the article with both relevant street addresses.
Village St George is the hood in south/south east corner of Perkins and Siegen.
Gmaps to the house where he was raped.

watching it now....can't believe i haven't hear of this

There was another homicide off of Honey Dr where a mulatto fellow stabbed his wife to death a few years ago.

Yeah, after reading what Mike posted, dont think I will be listening to that now like I said I would Smack.

It weighs on my mind that I would never have been born had my brother that I never met passed. My mom was done having children, until this left a hole in her heart. It also weighs heavy on my mind that someone commented on him after all this time in a post about his murder as being “the bad kid”. Not really called for. He was 11. 11.

LINK

Maybe Sister Prejean can forgive, but I say send these criminals to Hell. Good people sit by and let evil happen and go unpunished.