By Kimberly Hopson
L’Observateur

LAPLACE – Reserve resident James Vandell Hutchinson, 39, the suspect arrested in last year’s Metairie LaQuinta Inn strangling murder of LaPlace resident King Honore, has been formally indicted according to the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office. Hutchinson was also indicted for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle for driving the victim’s rented car.
Authorities in Jefferson Parish arrested Hutchinson last October in connection with the September murder of the LaPlace-area elementary school teacher’s aide. Hutchinson was arrested after being questioned at the St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff’s Office and booked with second-degree murder according to Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office spokesman Col. John Fortunato. Honore had been staying in a room at the LaQuinta Inn, 3100 S. Interstate 10 Service Road in Metairie, since Sept. 3 because his home was flooded by Hurricane Isaac.
Fortunato said a DNA sample was submitted to the Sheriff’s Office’s crime lab, and it matched Hutchinson’s profile. Fortunato said Hutchinson has an extensive criminal record that includes arrests for attempted murder, aggravated battery, domestic abuse, robbery and assorted drug and traffic charges.
St. John Parish Sheriff’s Office detectives said Hutchinson contacted their office and said he would come in for questioning. There, detectives questioned Hutchinson about the murder. Fortunato said Hutchinson told them he visited Honore at the hotel around the time of the murder but denied any involvement in the incident. Hutchinson refused to answer any further questions without first speaking to an attorney.
Fortunato said investigators obtained an arrest warrant for Hutchinson and took him into custody in St. John Parish, where he was charged as a fugitive from Jefferson Parish. He was transferred to the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna and booked with murder.