ACSO may never get hands on most wanted suspect

Published 12:03 am Wednesday, February 8, 2012

NATCHEZ — If you look at the list of Adams County’s most wanted criminals, you’ll find a mixture of charges, from burglary to contempt of court to attempted arson. One charge in particular stands out, however — murder.

What’s even more noteworthy is that the wanted man, Tyrone Vincent Lacaze, was arrested in November 2007. So why is he still considered wanted?

Lacaze was already accused of a murder in Texas before he ever made his way to Mississippi. On Oct. 22, 2007, when he was 21, Lacaze allegedly unleashed a firestorm of bullets on 30-year-old Ronald “Bo Diddly” Jones, shooting him more than 30 times with a 9-mm handgun in the parking lot of Village Square apartments.

Email newsletter signup

He fled the scene, leading to a manhunt that lasted more than a month and ended after U.S. Marshals arrested him in Ferriday. When marshals entered the apartment unit in which Lacaze was hiding, he reportedly tried to escape through the apartment’s attic access. He was unsuccessful in crossing the attic — his feet kept crushing through the soft attic surface — and marshals ultimately had to use a Taser to bring him down. He was charged in Mississippi and then extradited to Texas.

According to an ACSO spokesperson, Lacaze remains on the list because he committed a crime in Adams County but has yet to be tried for it. The problem, District Attorney Ronnie Harper said, is that Lacaze was convicted on a capital murder charge in Texas while waiting to face justice in Adams County.

Such a situation is not unheard of, but the district attorney said it is not common.

“Mr. Lacaze was convicted and sentenced to life in Texas,” Harper said. “If and when he gets to a point of being released, we will be notified, and we can get him.”

However, “He was sentenced to life without parole, so it looks like we will never get him again.”

The case remains on the books.