Second Jury Returns Guilty Verdict in Teen’s Overdose Death Case
May 9, 2025
District Attorney Collin Sims reports that on May 8, 2025, a St. Tammany Parish jury deliberated just 35 minutes before unanimously finding 23-year-old Alvin Laurant Jr. of Covington guilty of second degree murder. The murder charge resulted from the 2022 Fentanyl overdose death of a 15-year-old Covington girl. The case was previously tried in February of this year. The first trial ended in a hung jury when eleven of the twelve jurors voted to find Laurant guilty of murder but one juror did not. Assistant District Attorneys Iain Dover and Gary Tromblay tried the case both times. Judge Tara Zeller presided over the four-day trial. Detective Matthew Morrison with the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Office headed the investigation.
According to trial testimony, during the evening hours of July 12, 2022, sheriff’s deputies and emergency medical technicians (EMTs) were dispatched to Felisia Grantham’s Bush residence in response to a 911 call reporting an unresponsive female at the home. Upon arrival, responding personnel observed a 15-year-old girl lying on her back on a bedroom floor, exhibiting no signs of life. Grantham was also present in the residence. Attempts to resuscitate the young girl were unsuccessful. While tending to the victim, deputies noted the presence of illicit drugs and drug-related paraphernalia in the bedroom. Suspecting the girl’s death may have resulted from foul play, a criminal investigation was initiated.
Detectives seized the drugs, which included several blue pills, and the paraphernalia found in the bedroom. Laboratory analysis of the recovered pills indicated they contained Fentanyl, a powerful opioid drug commonly abused, often with deadly consequences. Detectives also seized several electronic devices from the residence, one of them being Grantham’s cellular phone. An autopsy was performed on the victim and the toxicology results indicated the victim’s body contained 13 times the amount of Fentanyl needed to kill a human.
Data obtained from Grantham’s phone revealed a series of text messages occurring between Grantham and defendant Alvin Laurant, a known drug dealer from Covington, on the day of the victim’s death. During that conversation, arrangements were made for Laurant to supply the Fentanyl that ultimately killed the victim.
Detectives confronted Grantham with the data recovered from her cellphone. Grantham eventually admitted her involvement in obtaining the Fentanyl. Detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Laurant on a charge of second degree murder. Laurant was apprehended by the U.S. Marshals Service and St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office and transported to the parish jail. During questioning, Laurant admitted selling 20 pills to two females on or about July 12th but denied that either of them was a juvenile. While executing a search warrant at Laurant’s residence, detectives seized 13 blue pills similar to the pills found at the scene of the victim’s overdose death. Also seized was a cell phone determined to belong to Laurant.
During the trial, prosecutors presented evidence derived from the phone’s data extraction. It showed that Laurant had conducted internet searches on his phone on July 14th using the search terms “Covington news”, “St. Tammany news” and “overdose.” The call log section of the data extraction from Laurant’s phone confirmed several calls occurred between Laurant and Grantham on July 12th. The jury was also shown photographs and a self-made video recovered from Laurant’s phone. Several photographs depict Laurant with baggies of blue pills resembling the pills found both at the scene of the victim’s overdose and at Laurant’s residence. The video shows Laurant sitting in a car fanning a big stack of U.S. currency consisting of large bills. The time and date stamp on the video indicated Laurant recorded it just two and a half hours after the victim overdosed on the Fentanyl he sold to her and Grantham. Other photographs found in his phone depict Laurant showing off drug cash and wearing a sweatshirt that says “Cash Rules Everything.”
During the state’s closing argument at the conclusion of the trial, ADA Tromblay told the jury “The evidence overwhelmingly shows that the defendant is an indifferent poison-pusher who put his drug-profits over the welfare and life of a 15-year-old girl. As he prominently advertised, ‘Cash Rules Everything.’” In the state’s rebuttal closing argument, ADA Dover stated the defendant handed the victim a bag with ten death sentences in it, so he deserves one life sentence.
Judge Zeller set Laurant’s sentencing for June 18, 2025. Second degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
Grantham was convicted of second degree murder at the conclusion of her trial in December of 2024. She was sentenced by Judge Zeller on April 14, 2025, to life in prison. Assistant District Attorneys Gary Tromblay and Iain Dover also led that prosecution. Following Grantham’s guilty verdict, District Attorney Collin Sims stated “Drug dealers and their accomplices should be on notice, that if you want to run the risk and sell your poison to our kids, be prepared to be charged with murder.”