Records show suspect in Benton homicide was supposed to be in jail

By Johnette Magner

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    BENTON, Louisiana (KTBS) — Delandro Fleming, the man accused of fatally shooting an elderly man last week, should have been in jail at the time, but he was prematurely released, court records obtained by KTBS News show.

Fleming, 22, of Shreveport is now jailed in Bossier Parish in connection with the slaying of Wilmer Monette, 76, outside his daughter’s home in the Jamestowne subdivision near Benton. Bossier sheriff’s deputies allege Fleming approached the victim shortly after he got out of his vehicle and shot him repeatedly in the upper body before fleeing in a getaway car driven by an accomplice.

At the time of the slaying, Fleming should have been in a Ouachita Parish jail serving a two-year prison sentence for attacking a corrections officer at a juvenile prison in Monroe, according to court documents from Ouachita Parish obtained by KTBS News. Instead, he was released from custody in Ouachita Parish last year.

Fleming has an extensive criminal record dating to at least 2018 when he was 16 years old.

In 2019, he was convicted for a 2018 home invasion and armed robbery in Shreveport where 40 shots were fired. Caddo Juvenile Court Judge Paul Young sentenced him to juvenile life to be served in a juvenile jail until he turned 21 in March 2023.

In September 2020, while serving his juvenile sentence, Fleming was involved in an attack on a corrections officer while trying to escape from Swanson Center for Youth in Monroe.

Fleming was 18 years old at the time of the attack, and thus a legal adult, so the case was prosecuted in Ouachita District Court. He pleaded guilty to simple robbery on Nov. 3, 2021, and District Judge Walter Caldwell sentenced him to two years in adult prison — with the stipulation he begin that sentence only after completing his juvenile term. The prison term was to be consecutive to, not concurrent with, his juvenile term.

In October 2020, Fleming was charged with simple battery for punching and kicking another youth during an altercation at Swanson. Fleming was once again prosecuted in Ouachita District Court, where he pleaded guilty and was sentenced by District Judge Stephens Winters to time served, court records show.

In December 2021, Fleming was charged with aggravated battery for attacking another male inmate. He was again prosecuted in adult court and was sentenced to serve six months in jail, with the sentence to run concurrently, meaning at the same time as his juvenile term, court records show.

In December 2022, Fleming participated in a jail disturbance and was charged with simple escape and rioting. The charge was reduced to resisting an officer, and he was convicted on May 25, 2023. District Judge Larry Jefferson sentenced him to six months in jail with credit for time served, court records show.

According to an official in the records department at Ouachita Parish Correctional Center, Judge Jefferson also released Fleming from jail on May 25, 2023.

The release occurred despite the fact the state Office of Juvenile Justice (OJJ) had placed a detainer in Fleming’s file on July 6, 2022, for his simple robbery conviction as an adult.

KTBS News has reviewed court records showing that some of Fleming’s criminal records were filed in the Ouachita Clerk of Court’s system under an incorrect birth date, thus creating two sets of records for the same individual. The conviction requiring Fleming to serve additional time was under an entry with the incorrect birth date.

KTBS News contacted the Ouachita Parish Sheriff’s Office in an effort to find out what happened as the case moved through the juvenile and adult court systems. Sheriff’s deputies and clerks routinely are in courtrooms to record details of sentencings, so they can be shared with corrections officials.

Ouachita Sheriff’s Col. Larry Knight said Monday he had not heard about the premature release and that the sheriff’s office would look into the matter. Neither he nor Chief Deputy Marc Mashaw, who will become sheriff in less than two weeks, had responded by Tuesday morning.

Fleming is currently jailed in Bossier Parish under a $1 million bond in connection Monette’s death. He made his initial appearance in Bossier District Court on Monday and the public defender’s office was appointed to represent him. He has not entered a plea and Chief Public Defender Mike Miller did not return phone calls from KTBS News seeking a comment on behalf of Fleming.

Fleming was arrested hours after Monette’s slaying. Bossier sheriff’s detectives, aided in part by a neighbor seeing the license plate number of the getaway car, quickly developed Fleming as a suspect, and with assistance from a Shreveport police tactical team, arrested him at his residence on Captain Shreve Drive in Shreveport.

Bossier sheriff’s deputies said Fleming refused to make a statement to detectives. and the motive for the slaying of Monette is not known. There is no early indication the victim and his accused killer knew each other, deputies said.

Monette’s wife and daughter were inside the daughter’s home when he was shot.

The alleged driver of the getaway car, Destiny Landers, 23, of Shreveport, was arrested the same morning as Fleming at a location in north Shreveport. She is jailed under $500,000 bond.

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