Man convicted in 2015 vigilante killing of girlfriend's abuser will get new trial
BATON ROUGE - A man sentenced to life in prison for murdering a person said to have sexually abused his girlfriend as a child will get a new trial thanks to a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling banning non-unanimous jury convictions.
Court documents obtained by WBRZ Thursday show an appeals court tossed the conviction of Jace Crehan, which came in December 2017. A jury handed down an 11-1 verdict at the time, convicting Crehan of killing Robert Noce Jr., a known sex offender.
Crehan's girlfriend, Brittany Monk, told authorities the couple killed Noce as retribution for abuse she had suffered at the hands of Noce as a child. Noce had taken a plea deal and was sentenced to five years probation in 2015 over Monk's abuse. He was found dead, with his body stuffed in a barrel inside home, about a month later.
Monk pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter in the killing.
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Crehan was previously denied an appeal to his conviction, but a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year dictated that criminal juries must be unanimous in order to convict.