GRETNA, La. -- An Avondale man will spend the rest of his life in prison after being sentenced Thursday in the killing of a Kenner couple as they slept next to their infant.
In January, Shaun Barnett, 30, was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder for the April 2016 shootings.
According to the Jefferson Parish District Attorney's Office, Barnett and his friend, 31-year-old Raynell Kimbrough, had been at a daiquiri shop in Avondale the night before. After an argument with Kimbrough's girlfriend, 28-year-old Dawn Scott, Barnett left the home in the 2100 block of Idaho Street, only to return to kill the couple.
Around 6:30 a.m., prosecutors said Barnett came through a back door and shot Scott once in the head as she slept next to her child. Kimbrough woke, and Barnett shot him in the face and body. Then, Barnett shot Scott again in her body before leaving the apartment.
A 10-year-old in the home heard the gunshots and found both victims, then went to a neighbors house. A 2-year-old child was also in the home at the time of the shooting, but none of the children were injured.
Kimbrough's 7-year-old daughter wrote a letter to the court, saying her father's death left her "mad and sad."
“You hurt my heart before anybody else had a chance to,” the child wrote in a letter a prosecutor read aloud during the sentencing hearing.
Detectives said they found a jacket Barnett wore in a hamper at his home with Kimbrough's blood on it. Officials also said some of Scott's belongings were in Barnett's car and a home in New Orleans.
