May 3, 2017
COVINGTON—A St. Tammany Parish grand jury indicted Jami D. Cooper, 33, of Bogalusa, with second degree murder Tuesday (May 2) in the death of a teenager found unresponsive in a Covington ditch after smoking synthetic marijuana.
Cooper is accused of distributing the drug through a middle man to the 17-year-old, who died after using it on March 13, 2016. Cooper has been arrested and is being held in lieu of a $500,000 bond.
Also on Tuesday, Jarbari Pea, 23, of Covington, who was indicted last year on a second degree murder charge in the same case, pleaded guilty to negligent homicide and Distribution of Synthetic Cannabinoids (Schedule 1) for his role as the middle man. District Judge Scott Gardner sentenced Pea to five years in prison on the negligent homicide charge and 10 years with five of them suspended on the distribution charge. The sentences are to be served concurrently.
The grand jury also returned the following indictments:
- Victor Galan, 37, of Folsom, with the aggravated rape of a 10-year-old girl, who had been left in his care; and
- Shane Christian Pagano, 41, of Slidell, with the aggravated/first degree rape of a 13-year-old girl, beginning when she was three to five years old and lasting for several years.
Cooper, Galan and Pagano from top to bottom
