Lacombe Man Guilty of Second Degree Murder In Case Involving Body Dumped in Santa Rosa County, Florida
July 12, 2024
District Attorney Collin Sims reports that on July 12, 2024, a St. Tammany Parish jury deliberated for less than an hour before returning guilty verdicts on all charges against 37-year-old Patrick “Paris” McCarty of Lacombe arising out of the fatal beating of 36-year-old Joshua James in 2022. McCarty was convicted of Second degree murder, Obstruction of justice and two counts of Possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Assistant District Attorneys Christina Fisher and Iain Dover methodically laid out the evidence during the trial, with Judge Richard Swartz presiding. Detective Julie Boynton led the investigation for the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office.
Prosecutors called more than 20 witnesses to the stand and introduced hundreds of exhibits during the five-day trial. Testimony established that on the morning of June 14, 2022, deputies in Santa Rosa County, Florida were dispatched in response to a body reportedly seen floating in Jake’s Bayou. Upon inspection of the body, it was found to be an adult male displaying obvious signs of foul play. The victim’s right hand was tied behind his back and his body had been wrapped in a white fur rug. Additionally, there were ligature marks on the victim’s neck and extensive bruising over most of his body. The decedent was fingerprinted on the scene and analysis of the prints identified him to be Joshua James, last known to reside in Lacombe. Detectives with the Santa Rosa Sheriff’s Office began its investigation. Among the information initially developed was that the victim owned a Kia Optima. Upon checking the Automated License Plate Recognition national database, detectives noted the vehicle had been captured traveling toward Florida on Interstate 10 near Mobile, Alabama at approximately 8 pm the night prior to the discovery of the victim’s body. Approximately four hours later, around midnight, the vehicle was again caught on camera near Mobile, Alabama, this time heading westbound on Interstate 10 back toward Louisiana.
As the investigation progressed, detectives in Santa Rosa County focused attention on the defendant Patrick McCarty and his boyfriend. They sought assistance from the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office in locating the two individuals, as they were known to live in St. Tammany Parish. Detectives with STPSO made plans to visit a Lacombe residence believed to be shared by McCarty and his boyfriend. Prior to visiting the residence, detectives reviewed video footage from the body worn camera of a deputy who had been called out to the address several months earlier regarding an unrelated, non-criminal matter. While that deputy was present at the residence, his camera captured portions of the interior of the house. When detectives watched the video footage, they noticed one of the rooms had a white fur rug that resembled the rug found with the victim’s body. Detectives obtained a search warrant for the residence to determine if the rug in the video was now missing from the house. Upon execution of the search warrant, detectives confirmed the rug was no longer there. Additionally, blood spatter was observed in multiple areas of the residence. Two handguns were recovered from McCarty’s bedroom. Although the weapons were not connected to the homicide, Louisiana law prohibits McCarty from possessing any firearms due to his 2018 conviction for Aggravated second degree battery. McCarty, who was present at the residence when detectives served the search warrant, was interviewed by detectives. He acknowledged that he and his boyfriend had recently engaged the victim in a fight and McCarty admitted he “punched the s*** out of [the victim].” However, he denied killing the victim. McCarty said that after the fight, everyone, including the victim, took a ride to Florida in the Kia Optima. McCarty claimed he fell asleep during the trip and when he woke in Florida, the victim was no longer with them.
Witness testimony produced at trial by the State revealed McCarty relentlessly beat the victim into unconsciousness at the Lacombe residence. Shortly after the pummeling ceased, the victim stopped beathing. When McCarty and his boyfriend realized the victim was deceased, they wrapped the victim in the white fur rug and shoved his body into the trunk of the Optima. They then left the residence in the victim’s Optima. As they left town heading toward Florida, they drove by the victim’s residence in Lacombe and McCarty threw the victim’s phone out the vehicle to give the appearance the victim had returned home. Once they reached Florida, McCarty and his boyfriend threw the victim’s dead body off a bridge into a canal.
During the course of the investigation, detectives established that the day prior to him beating the victim to death, McCarty had accompanied the victim to the victim’s bank in Mandeville in an attempt to have McCarty’s name added to the victim’s account. The account held a large sum of money, money the victim had recently inherited as a result of his father’s passing. The bank refused the request as the victim appeared to be intoxicated.
In his closing remarks to the jury after testimony had concluded, ADA Iain Dover directed the jury’s attention to the courtroom’s large projection screen. It displayed a body diagram prepared by the Florida medical examiner documenting the extensive injuries to the victim’s body. During her testimony, the medical examiner had said there were too many injuries to count. As the jury stared at the diagram, Dover proclaimed “Joshua’s final moments were excruciating and they were at the hands of Patrick.” He also pointed out how McCarty showed no concern for the victim. Despite claiming the victim just disappeared during their trip to Florida, McCarty never asked anyone “Where’s Josh?”
Defense counsel tried to cast doubt on the State’s evidence, saying while some of it was “wheat”, much of it was just “chaff.” He argued that even if the jury believed the State’s evidence, all it established was McCarty committed a manslaughter, as the killing occurred during the “heat of passion.”
In her rebuttal argument to the jury, ADA Christina Fisher seized the opportunity to explain why McCarty’s violent attack on the victim amounted to second degree murder, not manslaughter. To help illustrate her point, she replayed for the jury a snippet of surveillance video from an Alabama gas station. The group had stopped at the station on its way to Florida. As McCarty and his boyfriend stood in line to pay for their purchases, they are seen amorously embracing and caressing one another, unaffected by the knowledge that a dead body lies in the trunk of their vehicle. Fisher argued such callousness betrayed any claim that McCarty acted out of uncontrollable “heat of passion” or that he felt any remorse once he realized what he had done.
After the jury’s guilty verdicts were announced in court, McCarty was seen making an obscene gesture. It was unclear whether it was directed toward the jury or the large group of the victim’s family members seated in the courtroom. McCarty’s sentencing is scheduled for August 14th. Second degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison.