Louisiana jury convicts Pascagoula native of 2nd-degree murder in girlfriend’s killing
A Louisiana jury convicted Pascagoula High School graduate Michael Edwin Vice of second-degree murder in the shooting death of his fiancée, also from the Pascagoula area, according to a KPLC news report.
Vice shot and killed Lori Estelle Tanner, 38, while they were in a vehicle exiting I-210 onto Lake Street in Lake Charles on Aug. 1, 2018. Tanner and Vice were living in Lake Charles at the time.
When authorities responded to the shooting, they found Tanner dead of a gunshot wound inside the car, Lake Charles police said in a press release at the time.
In trial testimony this week, the coroner said the gunshot that killed Tanner was a close-contact wound, meaning the gun was touching her face when it was fired, the KPLC report said.
State prosecutors also showed jurors text messages between the couple that indicated their relationship was ending and Tanner had an interest in someone else.
Jurors saw additional video Tanner shot from inside the vehicle shortly before her death that showed the couple arguing and Tanner telling Vice once again their relationship was over.
The Lake Charles Police Department issued a news release about the allegations against Vice in aftermath of his arrest.
The jury returned the verdict Friday.
