BATON ROUGE — Earlier this week, the family of a woman killed in a hit-and-run said their wishes were not considered when prosecutors gave her killer a plea deal. 

District Attorney Hillar Moore said evidence was a problem in the case against Tayquencia Harris because prosecutors could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Harris was behind the wheel when LaDerica Stewart was hit, since another person was in the car.

Harris pleaded guilty to manslaughter and, in exchange, got a 10-year sentence cap.

"The system, to me, has failed once again," a family member said.

Stewart's family's situation is not unique.

Over the last two years, the WBRZ Investigative Unit found 14 plea bargains for homicide-related arrests at the 19th Judicial District Court that had significantly reduced sentences. Several of these deals went against what victims or their families wanted. In that same time period, roughly 20 homicide cases went to trial; three of which resulted in acquittals and another three in a mistrial. 

According to Moore, cases in the 19th JDC are often solved through plea deals. It's a common practice. A defendant pleads guilty—often to a lesser charge—for an agreed-upon sentence that is also usually reduced. Sometimes it's because a victim or their family don't want to go through trial.

Moore said in the Harris case, and others, oftentimes plea deals are based on what prosecutors believe they can prove at trial with the evidence they have.

"We always consider what the victim's position is. In this case, given the sentence that is the potential sentence, the one that we negotiated, we thought as a matter of protecting the public and public safety that it was the appropriate thing to do," Moore said.

One case involved Jerry Huggins, who shot Corey Breaux in 2025 and was charged with attempted first-degree murder. Security video captured the entire altercation.

Breaux said he wanted a longer sentence for Huggins, but the plea deal was for five years. Breaux said prosecutors advised against going to trial because a jury might give a lighter sentence due to Huggins' age.

In 2024, Darrien Rogers got five years after pleading guilty to manslaughter for crashing into and killing Sherell Weston in 2022. Weston's family said they were expecting to attend jury selection when they learned about the plea deal.

"I was expecting better justice for the crime committed," Natalie Pitts, Weston's cousin, said. "I mean we have a family that's in mourning every day, and we just feel it's just not justifiable what's going on."

In 2025, Nicholas McQuirter pleaded guilty to negligent homicide after being arrested for second-degree murder when he allegedly went into his girlfriend's home and shot and killed her father. He received probation.

Danita Cage, mother of the victim, Dezmon Hamilton, told WBRZ she felt numb after hearing his sentence.

"From second-degree murder to five years' probation? I have nothing else to say," Cage said.

Moore said the case had too many evidentiary issues to risk going to trial.

"There were no witnesses to the actual shooting to determine who shot first, who was the aggressor, and looking at all the ballistics and doing all the tests that we could do, there was no video that was put into evidence that, to our knowledge, there was no way we could tell who shot first," he said.

Former Chief Judge Don Johnson said prosecutors do not always do what victims or their families request.

"Victims' impact weighs heavily on what the lawyers are going to do in terms of satisfying the victim's concerns, but it's based upon the evidence, and if the evidence is lacking, no matter what the victim may want, they're going to probably negotiate to something they can explain to the public," Johnson said.

Johnson said he has noticed a change over his three decades on the bench.

"The offense level and the punishment that goes with it, that is not the same," Johnson said.

He said, increasingly, plea deals—and the sentences worked out—do not match the crime. 

"If you engage in the death of a human being, the probability of you going to jail for a long time, even if it's a plea bargain, that number of years is not the same as it was, say, 10 years ago," Johnson said.