Elmo Patrick Sonnier - Arrest

Arrest

The Sonniers were arrested on December 5, 1977, following a tip from a local man who reported seeing the Sonniers' 1961 blue-colored Dodge Dart parked in the remote area during the early morning hours of November 5. They were advised of their rights and taken to the Sheriff's Office in New Iberia, Louisiana. While there, Patrick Sonnier gave verbal and written confessions. The defendant was then transferred to a parish prison in an adjacent parish. While en route, he made other statements to the officers who were transporting him. The following day he agreed to a videotaped confession. All three statements indicated that Patrick Sonnier had participated in the abduction of the victims and had personally shot them.

The police, after direction from Patrick Sonnier, later recovered the two rifles used in the murders. Ballistics tests indicated that a bullet taken from a victim's head and four brass casings found by the police at the scene of the crime had positively been fired from the rifle which belonged to the defendant. Because of excessive damage, the other five bullets that were recovered could only be identified as having been fired from the same model, brand and caliber rifle as that belonging to the Sonniers. The handcuffs used in the abduction were later recovered from Patrick Sonnier's bedroom. The State also produced a witness who testified that he had seen the defendants' blue 1961 Dart at the place where the abduction occurred during the early morning hours of November 5, 1977.

The defendant and his brother were jointly indicted on two counts of first degree murder by the grand jury of Iberia Parish. On January 19, 1978, Patrick was arraigned and entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.