A Sixth District task force sergeant stands outside the crime scene marked off at the corner of Camp and Delachaise streets, where Sandy Kaynor was shot in the chest during a carjacking Oct. 2, 2012. (UptownMessenger.com file photo by Robert Morris)
Sandy Kaynor Jr. (via joneswalker.com)
Kaynor, 58, died April 19 due to “complications of remote gunshot wound” from the October 2012 shooting at his home on Camp Street near Delachaise, according to an announcement from McKenna’s office late Thursday morning. An attorney at Jones Walker, Kaynor was shot in the chest and back as he sat in his driveway, and struggled with complications from those injuries for years until he died in April.
Three men — Byron “Poodieman” Johnson (20 at the time of the shooting), Devante “Tae Banger” Billy (18 in 2002) and Charles “Chuck” Carter Jr. (then 16) — were convicted on charges relating to Kaynor’s shooting. Johnson, pleaded guilty in 2015 to attempted murder and accepted a 45-year prison sentence; Billy pleaded guilty in May 2016 and was sentenced to 60 years; and Carter was found guilty at trial of attempted murder in January 2016 and sentenced to 362 years in prison. All three were also convicted in the murder of Valan May, a 24-year-old U.S. Navy veteran and film student attending the University of New Orleans, as part of the same violent spree as Kaynor’s shooting.
Johnson, Billy and Carter could be re-tried on a murder charge following Kaynor’s death, but Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon A. Cannizzaro Jr. said in April that he would wait for an official ruling from the coroner’s office before deciding how to proceed.
“Until a determination of homicide as the cause of Mr. Kaynor’s death is made by the Orleans Parish Coroner’s office, it is premature to speculate on the potential of new charges for any defendants in this case,” Cannizzaro said in April.
McKenna’s office announced his ruling on Kaynor’s death around 11:30 a.m. Thursday, and Cannizzarro’s office said they had no immediate comment.
