LEONARD GRAY / L’Observateur / August 21, 1999

EDGARD – Steveland Carter accepted a pretrial plea agreement and will serve a 12-year sentence for the second-degree murder of Courtney Tyler at a 1997 graduation party.

A fellow defendant, Patrick Snyder, still awaits trial.

Carter, 20, was due to go on trial Sept. 12 for the June 1, 1997 murder ofTyler, who was attending a graduation party at the Pontchartrain Employees Recreation Organization (PERO) building at the DuPont plant on River Road in LaPlace. He was shot as the party was breaking up and peoplebegan to trickle into the parking lot.

Carter surrendered to authorities two days later, brought in by his mother.

Snyder was apprehended the day of the shooting.

More than 200 people attended the graduation party and, as the party was breaking up just after midnight, gunshots rang out from the parking lot and Tyler was fatally injured. Five other partygoers were also shot andinjured.

On Wednesday, Carter accepted a sentence of 12 years for the shooting death of Tyler and sentences of 10 years each for the aggravated battery of the five other shooting victims. All sentences will run concurrently.40th Judicial District Judge J. Sterling Snowdy approved the pleaagreement and carefully questioned Carter to ensure his understanding of the agreement.

“This is a very serious case,” Snowdy affirmed. “That’s why we take theseextraordinary measures.”In the second row of the audience, Tyler’s mother, Diana Morgan, sobbed quietly, clutching a baby boy in her lap. At Snowdy’s request, she stood toconfirm her acceptance of the plea agreement.

After the hearing was completed, Morgan said, “I’m glad it’s over. We cantry and put it behind us. It’s been hard on my whole family.”Back in June 1998, one year after the death of her son, Morgan was able to help comfort another mother of a shooting victim.

On May 23, 1998, Cleophus Greene III was shot and killed at a graduation party in Destrehan.

“It helped me to talk to other people who understand,” Morgan commented.

“Losing a child is something you never get over.”

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