Tow truck driver shot, body burned inside

Charles Lee Reppond climbed into his first tow truck in 1969, unaware that a similar truck would become his tomb 20 years later.

At age 19, Charles, his sixteen-year-old wife, Mable Marie, and their two-month-old son, sustained minor injuries when their car collided with another in the intersection of Range Avenue and Leslie Street in Denham Springs. The tow truck driver drove them to Dixon Memorial Hospital after dropping their vehicle at their home on Juban Road.

Charles asked the tow truck driver about business and asked if he was hiring. Charles said he could imagine himself owning such a business one day after he saved the money to buy a truck or two. The driver had no positions open but recommended a Baton Rouge car dealership looking for sales personnel. By November 1987, Charles had saved enough from selling cars to buy a truck and opened the Ace Wrecker and Towing Service on Highway 190 between the town of Walker and the City of Denham Springs.

Charles thought the friends he gained selling automobiles and fighting fires with the Denham Springs Fire Department would be enough to sustain his business, but he soon learned that tow truck businesses depend on police departments to survive. They recommend services to accident victims, call wreckers to accident scenes themselves, and decide who stores and collects fees for towed vehicles. However, Denham Springs Police Chief Paul Scott Jones told Charles, the city had a contract with the Trading Post 24-hour Wrecking Service, leaving the three other companies serving the area, Broussard’s Gulf Service, American Coachworks, and Charles Reppond’s Ace Wrecker and Towing, out of the loop.

On May 30, 1988, Charles addressed the Denham Springs Board of Alderman, asking them to pass an ordinance instituting a rotating wrecker call list. The board rejected his request, and Charles hired a lawyer.

Denham Springs attorney Larry G. Starns filed a $50,000 lawsuit against the city demanding damages, saying Police Chief Scott Jones told Charles he would need to buy a second truck before his officers would call Charles’ service. Charles, the litigation said, bought the truck, but still received no referrals from city police.

The lawsuit also asked that the city create the rotating call list Charles originally requested, saying that a board-approved contract existed between the city and the Trading Post 24-hour Wrecking Service, amounting to a conspiracy in restraint of trade in violation of Louisiana state law, constituting a monopolization or attempt to monopolize trade in Livingston Parish.

November 29, 1988, the Denham Springs Board of Aldermen voted to adopt the rotating call list for towing services, but spectators expected the legal fight and appeal process for Charles’ 50,000 dollars to continue into the 1990s.

That expectation dissolved the morning someone shot Charles Reppond and set his truck ablaze with his body inside.

At 3:45 in the morning, December 28, 1989, according to Livingston Parish Chief Deputy Willie Graves, two linemen working for the Dixie Electric Membership Corporation spotted an abandoned wrecker on Black Mud Road, near the Satsuma exit off Interstate 12. They saw yellow lights flashing above the cab but could see no one inside the vehicle.

Forty-five minutes later, returning from a service call, the workers saw the truck again. This time, it was on fire. They called the sheriff’s office and the fire department. Extinguishing the flames, the firefighters found a smoldering corpse slumped across the seat.

In time, the Louisiana State Police crime lab identified the body as Charles Reppond, and the coroner declared his death a homicide. The State Fire Marshal’s office ruled the fire arson but could not determine what chemical agent the arsonist used to set the blaze.

When police arrived at Charles Reppond’s home on Burgess Avenue, they found his attorney, Larry G. Starns, inside. He had broken the news to Charles’ second wife, Mary, before the officers arrived. Mary told police Charles left on a call at three that morning and never returned.

December 29, a Grand Jury asked Starns how he learned of Charles’ death and drove to Charles’ home on Burges Avenue before police arrived. The lawyer described receiving a 5:00 AM telephone call at his home, notifying him of Charles Reppond’s death inside the burning truck, but the lawyer refused to identify the caller, citing attorney-client privilege.

In a special hearing the following week, Judge Kenneth Fogg ruled Starns in contempt of court and ordered him to report to the Livingston Parish Prison for six months in jail. At that point, the lawyer revealed his anonymous caller was a police officer, Lieutenant Rod Vulgamore of the Denham Springs Police Department.

Vulgamore testified at a subsequent hearing that Detective Dillard Steward of the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office interviewed him and that he had given Starns permission to reveal his name after Judge Fogg’s ruling.

Captain Joe Shumate, acting Police Chief after Denham Springs Mayor Herbert Hoover fired Paul Scott Jones, told reporters in 1990 that his office was investigating Vulgamore’s actions for violating departmental policies and procedures.

Today, Rod Vulgamore no longer works for the Denham Springs Police Department. He has never explained his actions, and the killer of Charles Reppond remains at large.