Revenge a possible murder motive

Published 12:00 am Thursday, April 16, 1998

By Leonard Gray / L’Observateur / April 16, 1998

RESERVE – A 46-year-old man was stabbed and killed early Monday morning in an apparent act of revenge after the victim allegedly slashed the mother of one of his attackers.

Arrests came later in the morning.

Donald Ray Washington, 46, 179 East 10th St., was located face down inthe bedroom of his house trailer by deputies responding to a 9-1-1 call regarding a simple battery.

According to Chief Harold Klibert of the St. John the Baptist ParishSheriff’s Office, the emergency call came in at 1:59 a.m. Deputies arrivingat the address got no one to come to the door and had the 9-1-1 operators call the reporting person back to get further information.

That person, Allen J. Holland, 22, 183 East 10th St., met with the deputiesand claimed he heard fighting inside his neighbor’s trailer. Deputies forcedthe door and located Washington, dead from a stab wound to his chest.

Holland and his house guests, Rosalyn Braxton, 44, and Hollis Braxton, 23, were all taken in for further questioning by detectives.

Hollis Braxton, 204 Walker Neal, Kenner, was later charged with second- degree murder, and Holland was charged with being a principal to second- degree murder and being an accessory after the fact of second-degree murder.

Klibert said Hollis Braxton, the son of Rosalyn Braxton, went to the Washington residence after Washington allegedly cut Braxton’s mother, for which he was charged March 28 for aggravated battery in a justice of the peace warrant.

Klibert said the slashes to Braxton’s head had required stitches.

Washington had not yet been arrested on that charge by deputies.

“We were looking for him,” Klibert said, and added often such domestic disputes brought before a justice of the peace ended up in reconciliations and dropped charges.

Klibert explained Rosalyn Braxton and Washington had earlier been living together as common-law spouses until the March 28 incident, after which Braxton moved in with Holland in the trailer next door.

When Braxton told her son, Hollis, about the cutting, both he and Holland went to Washington’s place to confront him.

Braxton reportedly returned later to the Holland residence and commented, “I hope I didn’t kill him.”Braxton’s bond was set at $250,000, and Holland’s bond was set at $100,000, by 40th Judicial District Judge J. Sterling Snowdy.

Three men were arrested April 9 and charged with running an illegal pit bull-terrier dogfight.

Arrested and charged with dogfighting were Dwayne Anthony Kanzig, 21, LaPlace; Avron Tobias, 22, Kenner; and Brandon Morgan, 18, LaPlace. Kanzigwas also charged with contempt of court over a cocaine possession incident. Tobias was also charged with cruelty to animals. Morgan wasalso charged with distribution of cocaine.

According to Klibert, deputies responded to a neighbor’s call to a Williamsburg address. There, the complainant said dogfights had beencarried on for several months and that dogs who died were buried on the property.

At 6 p.m., deputies moved in and made three arrests. One noticed Morganallegedly trying to quickly bury something in the sand and came up with a container of crack cocaine rocks. Four pit bulls were tied in oppositecorners of the back yard, one dog bleeding profusely from head wounds.

Return To News Stories