Charles Mayeux murder trial rescheduled to Aug. 28

Jury selection in the murder trial of Charles Mayeux was supposed to begin Tuesday morning. Instead, prosecutors asked that the trial be postponed to Aug. 28 to allow them to provide new evidence to Mayeux’s defense attorney. The new evidence came to light Monday.

“There was evidence that we were told did not exist that was found by the doctor that did the autopsy,” District Attorney Charles Riddle said. The autopsy on Shelly St. Romain Mayeux was done out-of-parish.

Riddle said once prosecutors received and reviewed the autopsy information, “the decision was made to reschedule the trial date to allow time to give the evidence to the defense.”

Mayeux is charged with the 2nd degree murder of Shelly Mayeux and aggravated arson in connection with a March 21, 2015 incident. She and Mayeux had been married less than a year.

Ms. Mayeux was found dead in the charred remains of the home. Mayeux was home when the blaze started, but escaped without injury. There were no other people in the house at the time of the fire.

Mayeux called 911 at 2 a.m. to report the fire. Firefighters extinguished the blaze and found Ms. Mayeux’s body in the bedroom.

State Fire Marshal’s investigators found the fire to be “suspicious” and alerted the Avoyelles Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Following the conclusion of the joint investigation by the two agencies, Mayeux was arrested and has been held under $350,000 bond since his arrest.

Mayeux was fired as police chief on May 12, 2015. He is facing six counts of theft and six counts malfeasance unrelated to the murder and arson charges.

Shelly Mayeux was 31 years old, an Evergreen volunteer firefighter and a sergeant in the APSO corrections department. She had worked in that position for five years.