Serial killer to stand trial in another slaying

Serial killer to stand trial in another slaying
By Robert ZulloSenior Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, November 19, 2008 at 4:00 p.m. Last Modified: Wednesday, November 19, 2008 at 7:23 p.m.
THIBODAUX – The serial killer sentenced two months ago to eight back-to-back life sentences for killings in Terrebonne was transferred to the Lafourche jail last weekend, where he will await trial for a murder authorities say he committed in that parish.


Ronald Joseph Dominique, 44, who is suspected of raping and strangling as many as 23 men in south Louisiana over a decade, faces trial in Lafourche District Court for the first-degree murder of 27-year-old Christopher Charles Sutterfield. Though authorities believe he was killed in Lafourche, Sutterfield’s body was found Oct. 15, 2006, near the Tippy Canal Boat Landing on La. 69 in Iberville Parish.
Lafourche District Attorney Cam Morvant II would not say whether his office intends to seek the death penalty for Dominique, adding that he intends to consult with Sutterfield’s family.
Dominique was indicted Oct. 30 by a Lafourche grand jury for Sutterfield’s murder, more than a month after he pleaded guilty to eight murders in Terrebonne in an agreement with prosecutors that spared him from facing execution.
Terrebonne Assistant District Attorney Mark Rhodes said the agreement was the product of months of talks with the Terrebonne victims’ families, who unanimously consented to the deal to avoid the lengthy death-penalty process.
Dominique was shipped to the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola after pleading guilty to the murders of the Terrebonne victims -- Michael Barnett, Leon Lirette, August Watkins, Kurt Cunningham, Alonzo Hogan, Chris Deville, Wayne Smith and Nicholas Pellegrin – but was brought back to Lafourche at the request of the Lafourche District Attorney’s Office.
He appeared before a magistrate Tuesday and is scheduled to be arraigned Dec. 2.
Investigators told family members Sutterfield, who lived on St. Charles Bypass Road in Thibodaux but was staying at the A-Bear Motel in Houma at the time of his death, was strangled, like others whose deaths are attributed to Dominique.
Dominique targeted men he picked up off the side of the road or other places. He propositioned them for sex or lured them into his car with the promise of drugs or sex with a fictitious woman, police have said.
Dominique tied the men up, sometimes at gunpoint, and raped them before suffocating or strangling them. He dumped their bodies, which were often found shoeless or semi-clothed in cane fields and near remote bayous, across a swath that stretched from New Orleans to Iberia Parish.
Staff Writer Raymond Legendre contributed to this report. Senior Staff Writer Robert Zullo can be reached at 850-1150 or robert.zullo@houmatoday.com.