Eric Heisig / Houma Courier
GIBSON, La. — One-year-old Jamon “Lil Black” Lutcher Jr. got a lot of presents Saturday afternoon for his birthday. One of them was a shirt that said “Daddy loves me more than football.”
“He's always saying, ‘Da da da da da,' ” said his mother, 26-year-old Angelina Salinas. “He won't say ‘mama' for anything. Sometimes we think he's talking to him.”
Jamon Jr.'s dad, Jamon Lutcher Sr., was found by a fisherman in late April in the La. 20 canal off U.S. 90. The Terrebonne Sheriff's Office still refers to the case as a “suspicious death,” though family is convinced he was murdered.
However, no suspects have been arrested, and a specific cause of death was never determined because the body was too decomposed by the time it was found, police said. Sheriff's Capt. Dawn Foret said the case is still open, and that detectives are still following up on leads.
Foret has said it is possible Lutcher's criminal record may have had something to do with his death. Lutcher had been arrested and convicted of various crimes in Terrebonne and St. Mary parishes, according to police. When he died, he was wanted for domestic-abuse and animal-cruelty warrants.
On Saturday, family gathered at Lutcher's aunt's house in Gibson to celebrate Lil Black's birthday. The cake had a SpongeBob SquarePants toy in the middle. When he was given a piece of cake, most of it ended up spread around his face.
“My nephew will never know his father,” said Lutcher's aunt Edith Berrow.
Many of Lutcher's relatives wore shirts with his photo on it to memorialize him. DeAnna Lutcher, Jamon Sr.'s mother, said she knows “Christmas is going to be hard.”
Jamon Lutcher would have been 25 years old on Nov. 19, and DeAnna, 48, said she went to his grave that day. Buried next to him are his brother Herchel Lutcher, who was shot to death in 2009, and his cousin Don'ta “Two Penny” Stewart, who died in a car crash in 2009.
Eight months after Lutcher's death, his family said the Sheriff's Office doesn't call. “They aren't doing anything,” DeAnna Lutcher said.
And no one in Gibson has come forward with any information.
Still, Emma Diggs, Lutcher's aunt, said she believes it had to be one of his friends, because he didn't trust very many people.
“It had to be somebody he knew, and more than one. They had to have known his phone number,” DeAnna Lutcher said.
This has been especially difficult for Lutcher's extended family. In June, Lutcher's cousin, 38-year-old Gibson resident Catina “Tina” Stewart Jack, was found on the side of Talbot Avenue near Waverly Road in Thibodaux in June, dead of multiple gunshot wounds. Jamie Coleman, 35, was indicted on a second-degree murder charge in September in her death.
Another cousin, Corey Short, 23, of Gray, was gunned down in October, allegedly by his cousin, 21-year-old Joshua Smith. Police said the shooting happened during a drug deal, and 23-year-old Chad Mart was also arrested in his death.
Both are being held in the Terrebonne Parish jail on first-degree murder and armed robbery charges.
Family said they pray every day and still believe justice will be served at some point. Somebody will come forward, Diggs said.
“Their mind is going to deal with them,” Diggs said. “It's going to come out sooner or later.”
Anyone with information can call Bayou Region Crime Stoppers at 1-800-743-7433.
Staff Writer Eric Heisig can be reached at 857-2202 or eric.heisig@houmatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter @TerrebonneCrime.
