Greenhouse pleads guilty to negligent homicide

At a hastily called hearing this morning, Norris Greenhouse Jr. pleaded guilty to negligent homicide and malfeasance in the Nov. 3, 2015 shooting death of 6-year-old Jeremy Mardis. He will be sentenced to a total of 7.5 years -- five for negligent homicide and 2.5 years for malfeasance. Two years of the negligent homicide sentence must be served before he is eligible for parole. Formal sentencing will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday.

Prosecutors spoke to Few and the child’s grandmothers and they had no objection to the plea offer. Few's attorney, Mark Jeansonne, said his client "is pleased with the Attorney General's work on this case." He also said the family has no objection to the plea deal.

Greenhouse was facing trial on charges of 2nd degree murder of Jeremy Mardis and attempted 2nd degree murder of the child’s father, Christopher Few, following a traffic stop on a dead end street in Marksville on Nov. 3, 2015. Greenhouse was on duty as a Marksville City Marshal’s deputy.

Fellow deputy marshal Derrick Stafford was tried on the same charges in March. Jury selection took a week in that case. The jury voted 10-2 to convict Stafford of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter, for which he was sentenced to a total of 40 years in prison.

Greenhouse and his attorney, George Higgins III, were in court at 11 a.m. today to present additional motions in preparation for the start of jury selection Monday. Attorney General’s Office prosecutors John Sinquefield and Matthew Derbes were also present.

During the hearing, Greenhouse agreed to accept the AG’s plea offer of negligent homicide and malfeasance. Derbes would not comment on how long a plea offer had been on the table.

After the hearing, Sinquefield said he believes “justice was done in this case and it was in the best interests of the state of Louisiana” to settle the matter with the negligent homicide plea.

Sinquefield said several factors in Greenhouse’s case were different than in Stafford’s. Greenhouse fired four bullets and there is no forensic evidence that the bullets struck “anything but the car,” the prosecutor noted. Stafford fired 14 shots with several bullets striking Few and his son.

Higgins said he and Greenhouse both wanted to go to trial, but his client “did what he thought was best for his family” in taking the plea.

Higgins said Greenhouse had been “over-charged” with 2nd degree murder, based on the facts of the case. Plea-bargaining is common in such cases and “is done everywhere,” he added.

Had the case gone to trial Monday, Higgins believes it would have been moved out of Avoyelles Parish.

He said the 3rd Circuit denied his request for a stay order Friday and he had an appeal to the Louisiana Supreme Court prepared to file had the plea deal not ended the matter.

Both sides sounded relieved to have the case resolved.

“It is time to put this matter to rest,” Sinquefield said.

“It was time to end this,” Higgins noted.