Witnesses tell feds man wanted to ‘shoot some Mexicans’
On March 29, Mark Gautreau, 51, was finally sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to a shooting he had perpetrated nearly six years earlier.
In August 2006 Gautreau was fishing at the Bonnet Carre Spillway in Norco when he went to secure his boat to its trailer in preparation to return to his home in Gonzales. Over the next few moments Gautreau’s fate would be altered by not only his actions, but also the words he chose to use.
In the police report taken by a Spanish-speaking deputy at St. Charles Parish Hospital, Jose Lobo and Carlos Olguin, the two men who were shot, claimed they were fishing with two other friends along the shoreline at the spillway when Gautreau, who was unknown to them, pulled up to the dock, secured his boat, broke the back window of the truck to get his keys and then drove over to their location. They say “for no apparent reason” Gautreau fired a shotgun in their direction striking them both with pellets in the lower legs.
Upon returning home from the scene of the crime, Gautreau called 911 at his wife’s urging. Ascension Parish deputies who responded to the call found him bloodied, the back window of his truck broken out, his boat and trailer missing and claiming he had shot “several Mexicans” at the spillway who were trying to rob him. According to a police report taken by the APSO, Gautreau was reported as likely being intoxicated when he was picked up from his house.
In his initial version of the story Gautreau claimed he was in the process of putting his boat on its trailer when he got into a verbal altercation with a few Hispanic men who closed his truck door locking the keys inside. Gautreau then said he broke out the back window of the truck to get to his keys and as he was pulling away from the area the men shot at him. Gautreau claimed he stopped the vehicle and shot back at the men before quickly fleeing the area. He said his boat and trailer detached from the truck and overturned in the parking lot as he fled.
In a statement later recorded by the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office, Gautreau recanted the earlier version of the story, confessed to the shooting and said he was never really a victim. However, he believed that he would be robbed by the men.
Gautreau was initially charged with two counts of attempted first-degree murder as well as a “hate crime.” Those charges were later lowered by St. Charles Parish Assistant District Attorney Kim McElwee to battery, aggravated battery and aggravated criminal damage to property. McElwee said she pursued the case until the charges had to be dropped in September 2007 because they could not locate the victims, one of which was believed to be an illegal immigrant, for testimony.
“[I]f we had a victim we certainly were going forward with the case, no doubt about it,” McElwee said. “We’ve prosecuted plenty of cases where people are here illegally, but if you are a victim, you are a victim.”
The U.S. Attorney’s office used the testimony of other witnesses who were in the area to secure a confession by Gautreau. The witnesses claimed they were attempting to help Gautreau when he was locked out of his truck.
In all versions of the story Gautreau was named as the shooter and he confessed to the shootings on more than one occasion as well. The witnesses also told the feds that Gautreau said he wanted to “shoot some Mexicans.”
McElwee said even if she had been able to locate the victims she did not think Gautreau was guilty of a hate crime.
“I did not see this as a hate crime, not no way, not no how, the guy was drunk. The guy was a big drunk. If you look at his record he had like three or four DWI convictions,” McElwee said. “He was a big drunk and he was out there I’d say ‘pushing the full button.’ Whether he was doing this because they were Hispanic, I don’t know. I don’t think the guy knew what he was doing.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jan Mann, however, said the racial element may be the key to why her office picked up the case.
“He did get a sentencing enhancement because of it being a hate crime,” Mann said. “Is it something we’d look at seriously? I can’t say that is why it was brought to us, but I can say that is why the civil rights division was involved in it.”
Mann said U.S. Attorney Jim Letten’s office does not have a legal obligation to explain why or how the office decides which cases to take on.
“It’s not public information why we get involved or how we get involved in something, but I’ll just say it came to the attention of the civil rights division in our office,” Mann said.
Federal authorities began investigating the case last year claiming they had a right to pursue the case because it occurred on federal land within the Bonnet Carre Spillway. Gautreau pleaded guilty to one count of assault with a dangerous weapon in November 2011 and was sentenced in March.
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