Details on Brandon Scott Lavergne’s Indictment for the First Degree Murder of Lisa Pate

It was expected that on Wednesday’s grand jury that Brandon Scott Lavergne would be indicted for the disappearance of Mickey Shunick—but some were surprised to find that he was also indicted for the 1999 murder of Lisa Pate.

This was not the first time that Lavergne had been accused of the murder of Pate, having been considered by the grand jury in August of 2008 for 2^nd degree murder charges.  The grand jury decided in that instance neither to indict him, nor to clear him of any charges.  The reason for this was thought to be that there was not enough evidence against him at that current time.

Pate’s remains were found near Church Point in 1999, shortly before Lavergne was scheduled to be released from prison on a separate sexual assault charge.  It is thought that Lavergne had become a person of interest in the case sometime in 2000, for reasons unknown to the public at this time.

Pate’s body was found behind a rented house hidden behind several pieces of wood, several months after her disappearance, her death appeared to be from asphyxiation.  When Lavergne was arrested in connection with Mickey Shunick’s disappearance, there was no mention of a connection to Pate.

The focus was instead on the aforementioned sexual assault case in which Lavergne was accused for blindfolding and sexually assaulting a woman in rural Evangeline Parish in April 1999.  Lavergne eventually pleaded guilty to the charge in February 2000, and served eight years in prison before his release in August 2008, mere months before he was brought upon the grand jury in connection with the murder of Pate.