COVID-19 pandemic delays jury trials

Approximately 17 cases that had been set for jury trials in the 3rd Judicial District have been postponed because of the Louisiana Supreme Court’s order suspending trials until June 30 in light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The cases were originally scheduled to be held during March, April or May. Some were set for Union Parish and others, for Lincoln Parish. The two parishes make up the 3rd Judicial District.

All of the cases have been continued, 1st Assistant District Attorney Laurie Whitten said.

Among them, the trial of a former Grambling State University student charged in a double homicide that occurred on the school campus in 2017.

Jaylin M. Wayne was scheduled to go to trial May 18. Wayne is charged with two counts of second-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Earl Andrews and Monquiarious Caldwell.

The shootings were apparently the result of an altercation that began in a dorm room and spilled out into a nearby courtyard shortly after midnight Oct. 25, 2017.

Wayne was originally charged with firstdegree murder, but in February of this year, a grand jury changed the charges to seconddegree murder.

Wayne, of St. Louis, was a GSU freshman at the time of the shootings. Andrews was also a GSU student. Caldwell was not, but was a friend of Andrews.

Investigators said Caldwell appeared to have been coming to Andrews’ aid when he was shot. Wayne surrendered to Lincoln Parish Sheriff ’s deputies the day after the shootings.

He remains in the Lincoln Parish Detention Center.