Destrehan mother pleads no contest to murdering children

Dawn Wines

A Destrehan native has been sentenced to two consecutive life sentences after pleading no contest to two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of her two children.

Dawn Wines, 22, was arrested in Luling on March 12 and booked with two counts of capital murder by Columbia County, Ark. authorities who say she admitted to them that she suffocated her children.

She killed her 18-month-old son Louis “Scooter” Wines on Aug. 7 and her 7-month-old daughter Annabelle Wines on Oct. 13 in McNeil, Ark., according to Det. Leroy Martin of the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office.

Louis Wines was brought to Magnolia Hospital on Aug. 4, 2009 and pronounced dead three days later.

Annabelle was then taken into custody during an investigation into Louis’s death. Annabelle was returned home after 60 days, the allotted time by state law that the Sheriff’s Office had to build a case against Wines.

The Columbia County Sheriff’s Office said they didn’t have enough time to build a case against Wines and that they were still waiting for test results to come in when the time ran out.

Investigators said that Louis was allegedly suffocated with a pillow and Annabelle was strangled.

Both incidents happened while Wines was alone with the children and her husband, Josh Wines, is not being charged.

Wines was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences to be served in the Arkansas Department of Corrections.