The second-degree murder trial of Brandon Lindsey went to the jury around 6 p.m. Thursday at the Caddo Parish Courthouse in Shreveport and about an hour later returned with a verdict.
The jury found Lindsey guilty of second-degree murder.
Caddo prosecutor Victoria Washington said Lindsey "had 18 hours in that house" to clean up the scene, including the body of victim Heaven Weed, 23, who died eight days later at Ochsner LSU Health.
The house was a duplex in the 1200 block of Highland Avenue, where Lindsey, now 36, had begun living with Weed just weeks earlier. The victim's mother drove to the duplex the night of May 2, 2023, after her daughter failed to reply to calls and texts for hours.
There, she found Lindsey's truck, headlights on and driver's-side door open. Her daughter was wrapped in a sheet on her bed inside -- head swollen and bruises and abrasions covering her body.
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Thursday's testimony largely focused on DNA evidence that experts said showed blood around the home and on clothing items belonging to Lindsey, items he appeared to have been wearing hours earlier as the two visited a downtown Shreveport bar.
According to DNA analysts, jeans with apparent blood stains were found to have the victim's DNA on the outside and the defendant's on the inside. A shirt prosecutors said had been worn by the defendant at the bar had blood stains with her DNA and his DNA on the collar.
Prosecutor Courtney Ray said Lindsey "beat her so hard that there's blood spatter throughout the entire home." Pathologist James Traylor Jr. said his autopsy showed that Weed died from a blunt force closed head injury.
Defense offers an alternate suspect
When defense attorney Michael Enright asked Shreveport Police detective Jason Saiez if he had already made up his mind that the defendant was guilty when he interviewed him the day after the crime, Saiez said it was Lindsey's swollen knuckles, scratches on his arm and statements that contradicted things the detective knew that convinced him the boyfriend should be arrested.
A former boyfriend of Weed's, Stephen Morgan, was shown on video Wednesday telling Saiez he still loved Weed and insisting a brief scuffle between him and Lindsey four days before Weed's injuries would not have resulted in swollen knuckles on the defendant.
Enright seemed to suggest Morgan should have been considered more as a suspect, saying "he still thought of her as his." But prosecutors stressed his DNA was found nowhere in the duplex and not on any of the evidence tested.
Washington said Lindsey was considered the bad guy "because he is."
In her final argument, Washington insisted GPS data on the defendant's work truck and location data from his phone showed he had been home from about 1:30 a.m. the day of the crime until about 11 a.m. and then from about noon until the mom's arrival around 8:30.
Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 8. Second-degree murder carries a penalty of mandatory life in prison.