Holly MatkinShreveport, LA – The suspect accused of murdering Shreveport Police Officer Chateri Payne as she was heading out to her patrol car to go to work in 2019 said he no longer wishes to plead guilty and has demanded prosecutors hand over all evidence they have against him in connection with his pending murder trial.
Tre’Veon Anderson, 29, has been charged with second-degree murder for the Jan. 9, 2019 shooting death of 22-year-old Officer Payne, KTBS reported.
He and his co-defendants, Glenn Frierson and Lawrence Pierre, have entered not guilty pleas and are slated to go to trial on April 4.
Anderson previously wrote a letter to Caddo District Attorney James Stewart in December of 2021 saying he would plead guilty if the prosecutor would agree to certain conditions.
He noted in a recent letter to Stewart that he wasn’t satisfied with the second-degree murder plea deal he was ultimately offered, KTBS reported.
“How is that a plea deal when that’s what I’m charged,” Anderson asked.
The alleged killer said he has gone through seven public defenders since his arrest, and claimed they “all got off my case” because it is “so high profile and political,” KTBS reported.
“I haven’t even had effective counsel to represent me and review the case,” he complained in the letter to Stewart. “It’s like I am going to trial in the blind. The justice system supposed to be fair for all parties involved.”
Anderson said he has repeatedly asked for copies of the evidence the “state has against” him, but that he was told his attorney didn’t want to pay for it and that there was too much evidence to give to him, KTBS reported.
“Mr. Stewart, I am fighting for my life, I am entitled to see the evidence against but I still haven’t seen it yet,” the suspect complained in the letter. “All I want is this trial to be fair and for the truth to come out. I have been getting treated unfairly since the beginning of this. I can’t even face my (accuser) because we are on a joint trial and that’s my legal right.”
According to court documents, Officer Payne had told colleagues and family members that she planned to end her relationship with Anderson approximately one week before her murder, KTBS reported.
The uniformed officer was fatally shot outside her Caddo Heights home at approximately 8:20 p.m. on Jan. 9, 2019 as she was heading out to her running patrol car to go to work, KTBS reported at the time.
The mother-of-one was found with multiple gunshot wounds, including one to the head, according to FOX News.
She was pronounced dead within hours after the attack, then-Shreveport Police Chief Ben Raymond said during a press conference.
Anderson and Officer Payne lived together at the home where she was killed, and he was questioned by investigators immediately after her murder, Chief Raymond said at the time.
Anderson initially told detectives that he was present when the shooting occurred, the chief said.
“He advised he was inside the residence when he heard gunshots, then went outside and shot at a person wearing all black clothing whom he believed to be the suspect,” the chief explained. “He then noticed that Officer Payne had been shot.”
But during the course of the investigation, police determined that Anderson hadn’t told them the truth about what had occurred outside their Midway Avenue home.
“We believe Anderson shot and killed her and concocted the false narrative of her being murdered by an unknown suspect,” Chief Raymond said.
Pierre allegedly told investigators he witnessed Anderson killing Officer Payne, KTBS reported.
According to court documents, Pierre also confessed to having hidden the gun and showed police where he stashed it.
He told investigators Frierson had gone to Officer Payne’s home with him and left with him after the murder, KTBS reported.
Chief Raymond praised the state, local, and federal law enforcement officers involved in identifying and apprehending the “three evil cowards” responsible for Officer Payne’s “brutal murder.”
“These men and women represent some of the finest investigative minds in the State of Louisiana, and the nation as a whole,” he said at the time.
