On November 5th, Jeff Davis Parish District Attorney Michael Cassidy plans to offer Brett Hebert a plea deal in court where he will receive a reduced charge of manslaughter and will only be sentenced up to 36 years in prison instead of being tried for second degree murder and armed robbery, the crimes he has been charged with that would carry a life sentence. Our family has voiced our strong objections against this deal the District Attorney insists on offering and we are absolutely devastated that this violent criminal will get away with the brutal murder of Charles Raymond Talen Sr. and we ask for your help protesting this plea deal. The judge has the power to reject this deal and send it to trial if he feels it is not in the best interest of the victims family or the community. We ask you, the community, to please sign and share this petition so that we can fight this egregious injustice. Brett Hebert should never be allowed to walk free to live his life after he has taken one. We can't do this without your help.

Charles Raymond Talen Sr. was a loving father, brother, and grandfather. He was a part of this community for most of his life where he successfully ran a family owned and family oriented company for 40 years that employed more than 200 of its residents. On February 21st, 2015 he was tied up and brutally beaten to death in his Lake Arthur home while it was being robbed by Brett Hebert and Roderick Cawthorne Jr. Currently 11 people have been arrested for their participation in this crime. Some have received plea deals or given immunity for their cooperation, not all have been sentenced yet, this is far from over for us. So far Cawthorne has been the only person to be tried in this case. He was found guilty of second degree murder and obstruction of justice and was sentenced to life in prison on September 12th, 2017, but he immediately filed for an appeal.

Cawthorne did not testify at his trial so the only account that was given about what happened the night of the murder was from Brett Hebert, who claims that the murder was committed by Cawthorne while he was elsewhere in the house. There is no evidence to support that he is telling the truth. The District Attorney may be willing to take this criminals word on what happened that night, but we are not. No one will ever know what actually happened that night and our family will forever be denied that closure. Mr. Cassidy admits that he does not believe all of Hebert's story but Hebert's level of participation in the murder is legally irrelevant. In Louisiana second degree murder is the killing of a human being when the offenders are engaged in the perpetration of aggravated burglary, armed robbery, or first degree robbery, even though they may have had no intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm. As Brett Hebert has testified to being involved in this robbery, and the District Attorney has told us that there is no legal reason why Hebert can't be tried for second degree murder, we feel that there is no valid excuse why he shouldn’t be.

After being arrested Hebert only started to cooperate once he was able to speak with a detective that worked with his father, a law enforcement officer from Iberia Parish. The District Attorney claims that Hebert's cooperation and testimony was vital during Cawthorne's trial, but the detectives already had hard evidence. They found Cawthorne's blood, matching his DNA, at the crime scene on a small package that was dated the day of the crime and sitting on a desk in plain sight. They also had many witnesses, one who dropped them off at the crime scene, and video evidence of Cawthorne trying to sell his half of the gold coins stolen from the crime scene. The owners of the shop reported the attempted transaction to the police. Hebert’s share of the gold coins were never recovered. 

At Cawthorne's trial Hebert testified that there was no plea deal offered to him for his cooperation, and we never thought that there would be, we always assumed he would get second degree murder. But the District Attorney has told us that "at all times I insinuated that Hebert would plea to manslaughter in exchange for his cooperation" and that "a trial would be traumatic on all and a huge expense". The District Attorney also expressed concern that if he did not give Hebert a reduced sentence then that would send a message to criminals in future cases that they would not be rewarded for their cooperation. Hebert committed second degree murder, not manslaughter, and should be tried accordingly. As a family we feel that allowing Hebert to get away with murder would be much more traumatic for all of us than a trial and we do not feel cost should be a concern when pursuing justice for this brutal murder. We are more concerned about the message this plea deal sends to the victims, and not the criminals.

July 24th, 2018 Vaughn Robinson, a known criminal from Lake Arthur that was described in the book Murder on the Bayou as "a big time meth dealer" was supposed to be tried for accessory after the fact to second-degree murder, obstruction of justice, possession of stolen things over $1,500 and property damage charges in connection with this murder and robbery. He was going to be sentenced up to 40 years in prison. He was a main figure in the planning of this crime, but regardless of his long criminal history he was given a plea deal that we were never consulted on the morning of his trial. Robinson only plead guilty to obstruction of justice and was sentenced to 11 years in prison, with all but nine years suspended and credit for time served.

We have suffered unimaginable pain and loss, during these trials we have seen and heard evidence that will traumatize us for the rest of our lives, but we do not want revenge. We do expect the justice we deserve and not more plea deals handed out to these criminals that will just be out on our streets sooner than they should be. So again, we ask for your help getting that justice.