Rape Suspect Hires Men to Murder Accuser, They Mistakenly Kill His Sister Instead—Police

A Louisiana man charged with rape hired two hit men to kill his accuser, but they ended up killing his sister and her neighbor, authorities said.

Brittany Cormier, 34, and Hope Nettleton, 37, were shot dead at a home in Montegut on January 13.

Beaux Cormier, 35, of Kaplan, hired his friends Andrew Eskine, 25, of Carencro, and 22-year-old Dalvin Wilson, of Rayne, to kill his niece, who he is accused of raping, Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Tim Soignet said during a news conference on Monday.

All three men were booked into the Terrebonne Parish Criminal Justice Complex and charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

Soignet said Beaux Cormier, a convicted sex offender, was arrested for rape in March last year, and had hired Eskine and Wilson to kill his accuser—who is Brittany Cormier's daughter—so that she could not testify against him.

The men had travelled to Montegut to carry out surveillance on the residence sometime between July and November last year, the sheriff said. An attempt to kill the accuser in November had not been successful, Soignet said.

According to Soignet, when Erskine and Wilson returned to the residence on January 13, they asked for their target by name. He said Brittany Cormier pretended to be her daughter and was shot dead.

"The shooter asking for the rape victim by name, and Brittany Cormier tells the shooter she's the rape victim, accepting her fate to save the life of the actual victim," Soignet said.

He added that Nettleton "struggled with the shooter and was shot fighting him off."

Soignet said the Beaux Cormier's accuser was not hurt and Eskine and Wilson had confessed their involvement in the murder-for-hire plot.

He said the murders of the women had shaken Montegut, which has a population of around 2,000.

"We don't get these kinds of things that happen in Terrebonne Parish, especially in Montegut," he said. "People are very close over there. There were good people who died and it has really hit the community hard."

Samantha LeMaire, a close friend of Brittany Cormier, told The Arcadiana Advocate that the woman "would do anything to protect her kids."

"But to this extent?" she added. "I would have never thought it would ever have come down to this."

An online obituary for Brittany Cormier noted that Beaux Cormier was among those serving as a pallbearer at her funeral on January 21.

District Attorney Joe Waitz Jr. said at the news conference that prosecutors "feel like we have a very strong case."

"I will get convictions in this case," he said. "As far as the death penalty, it is definitely on the table," he added.

Waitz said a $2 million bond had been set for each of the three suspects, but he is weighing filing a motion to increase the amount.