Teens indicted as adults in murder of French Quarter tour guide
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - Three teenagers accused of murdering a French Quarter tour guide have been indicted as adults, the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office announced Thursday.
The teens—Kevin Nunez, 15, Jerben Albarec, 17, and Joshua Bonifacio, 19—are charged with the June 30 fatal shooting of 43-year-old Kristie Gioe Thibodeaux. Prosecutors say surveillance video captured Nunez ambushing and killing Thibodeaux as she sat in her car on St. Peter Street.
All three are charged with second-degree murder. Albarec and Bonifacio were also charged with conspiracy to commit armed robbery. They all face life sentences if found guilty.
Owner of Crawl New Orleans, Brian Cain, said it’s refreshing to see a repeat juvenile offender in Orleans Parish be tried as an adult, adding there’s definitely justice in that.
“I think there would be a lot of outrage if he wasn’t,” Cain said.
One week from Thursday would have been Thibodaux’s birthday. She would have turned 44 years old on August 29th.
Cain, her former employer, said Thibodeaux was always the life of the party. They plan to throw a birthday party in her honor next week.
“It’s a lot. You know, there’s a void that will never be filled. I’m reminded of it daily,” said Cain. “She was a great person and an ambassador of the city and just wanted people to have a great time when they came to visit New Orleans, and we’re going to do our best to continue to do that in her name.”
According to law enforcement sources, Nunez was wearing a deactivated court-ordered ankle monitor at the time of the murder. The monitor, administered by the Office of Juvenile Justice through a contractor, failed to provide real-time tracking. Nunez had been on home incarceration following his conviction for seven counts of aggravated assault, illegal possession of a handgun, and domestic battery abuse. An arrest warrant had been issued for Nunez on May 21 for violating the conditions of his release.
Adding to the controversy, Bonifacio had been reportedly living in the United States illegally. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reported that Bonifacio had been deemed inadmissible in 2019 but remained in the country, accumulating multiple arrests before being charged in Thibodeaux’s murder.
The murder of Thibodeaux, a well-known figure in the French Quarter community, sparked calls for ankle monitoring reform. Cain called for the state to take over the investigation, citing the city’s “inability to get things right.”
“[The indictment] is a step in the right direction, but I would hope that, you know, in the future it doesn’t take lots of media attention for the DA to prosecute juveniles who are committing violent crimes to be tried as adults, and it seems like that’s the case over and over again with things that have happened over the last 2 years in Orleans Parish,” said Cain. “There needs to be accountability from the top down... [T]here are people that are responsible for these juveniles being on the streets after they’ve committed violent crimes, and so I think when the accountability starts at the top then it will start to eliminate what’s happening at the bottom, because right now, it’s a free for all out there.”
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- Murdered French Quarter tour guide Kristie Thibodeaux remembered for love of New Orleans
- State officials frustrated with Orleans Juvenile Court’s apparent lax oversight of teen offenders
- Orleans DA blasts juvenile officials’ monitoring of teen accused of tour guide’s murder
- French Quarter Pub Crawl honors beloved tour guide killed in French Quarter
DA Jason Williams expressed frustration over the lack of oversight in the electronic monitoring program.
“This matter underscores how the closed and opaque nature of the juvenile system does a disservice to our community and justice system actors,” Williams said in a statement.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill launched an investigation into the state’s juvenile court and monitoring systems, questioning the efficiency of the current system. Upcoming reforms, set to take effect in January 2025, aim to ensure real-time tracking of offenders. However, critics argue that these changes come too late for victims like Thibodeaux.
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