Six years after the strangled bodies of a Baton Rouge couple were found in the back seat of their pickup at a Hammond gas station, jury selection is set to begin Monday in the trial of one of two men accused in their shocking deaths.
53 YO Frank Garcia, of Hollywood, Florida, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the October 2015 slaying of 71 YO Denis ”Bubbie” Duplantier, and 70 YO Suzanne ”Suzy” Duplantier.
Authorities have said the Duplantiers were robbed and beaten in their Highland Road home, where they lived almost all of their 48 years of marriage, before they were kidnapped and killed.
Garcia’s cousin, 48 YO Ernesto Llerena Alonso, who worked for the couple and lived on other property owned by them, faces the same murder counts and will later be tried separately.
East Baton Rouge Parish prosecutors announced in 2016 they would not seek the death penalty against either man after discussions with the victims’ families. They face mandatory sentences of life in prison if convicted as charged.
