Shreveport Man Found Guilty of Sex Crimes With a Child

A Caddo Parish jury found Shreveport man Jonathan Tyrone Cooper, 45, guilty of first-degree rape of a child in a trial that concluded Thursday, November 21, 2024.

The six-man, six-woman jury in District Judge John D. Mosely Jr.'s court deliberated approximately 45 minutes before finding Cooper guilty as charged.

On May 12, 2022, a 9-year-old girl told her fourth-grade teacher a male relative father was having sex with her. The Shreveport Police Department and the Department of Family and Child Services responded. The child and a child witness took part in an emergency interview at the Gingerbread house, where critical testimonial evidence of the crime was preserved. After the Gingerbread House interviews Cooper was arrested for rapes that began when the child was 7 and continued until she reported them at age 9.

When Cooper returns to court January 8, 2025 for sentencing, he faces a mandatory term of life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence.

Cooper was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Ross Owen, Michael Anderson and Chase Burgess. He was defended by Casey Simpson and Hilary Hileman.

The case was docket No. 389219.