According to Twenty-first Judicial DA Scott M. Perrilloux, 25 YO Kobe Guzman of Ponchatoula pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to serve 20 years at hard labor with the Department of Corrections.
Guzman pleaded before the Honorable Brenda B. Ricks the week before he was scheduled to begin trial.
He was arrested on Jan. 30 of 2018 by the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office following the shooting and killing of a victim on Dec. 29 of the prior year.
Witnesses claim the victim was bringing his young child to the child’s mother when he was shot multiple times by a suspect in a blue or black hoodie; however, the two should not have been meeting due to charges against the victim by the child’s mother. A witness who was inside the residence claimed the two were in a heated conversation outside when they saw a flash and heard gunfire. They then saw the victim fall to the ground, and the other witnesses, who were outside, ran to the house asking for help to call 911 while the mother began CPR. Prior to pleading guilty to manslaughter on April 20, Kobe Guzman did not volunteer a statement. Witnesses claim the shooter came and left by a grass path along Range Rd with some identifying the shooter to be Kobe Guzman, the nephew of the victim’s child’s mother.
