Mass shooter earns five life sentences

Wednesday, January 11, 2023, Judge Brenda Ricks awarded Dakota Michael Theriot three life sentences. Judge Jason Verdigets in Ascension Parish added two more, and he will serve them without parole or probation. Theriot pleaded guilty to five First-Degree murder charges, hoping to escape the death penalty.

In January 2019, before driving to Ascension Parish and murdering his parents, the 25-year-old shot and killed his girlfriend, father, and brother in Livingston Parish. The girlfriend’s two younger siblings escaped the killer’s rampage by running and hiding behind a neighbor’s home.

When police told Theriot’s grandmother her son died after calling 9-1-1 and reporting the attack by his son, the grandmother left her home for a hotel. The following day, police met her at her home, as did her gun-toting grandson.

He eased his truck up her driveway in Warsaw, Virginia, holding his gun outside the vehicle. Standing outside the home, Richmond County Sheriff’s Deputies raised their weapons, and Theriot dropped his. After surrendering, he confessed to the murders in Louisiana but claimed he only wanted to hug his grandmother and tell her goodbye before going to prison.

Ultimately, Louisiana authorities charged Theriot with shooting Billy Ernest, 43, his son Tanner, 17, and daughter Summer, 20, in their home on Courtney Road in Walker, Saturday morning, January 26, 2019.

A short time later, Ascension Parish deputies responded to the call from the shooter’s dad. Entering a Gonzales mobile home on Church Point Road, they found Keith and Elizabeth Theriot, both 51, suffering from gunshot wounds.

Ascension Parish Sheriff Bobby Webre told USA Today, “The father was gravely injured when we found him and soon passed away,” Webre said. “We were able to get a dying declaration from him, only enough information to let us know it was his son that committed this act.”

Soon after, Elizabeth Theriot also died from her wounds.

Webre said Dakota Theriot lived with his parents briefly, but two weeks before the murders, his parents asked him to leave and not return.

Webre said Theriot had no police record in Ascension Parish. However, he did in St. John, St. Charles, and Jefferson parishes, all non-violent, drug-related incidents.

“He was not on our radar screen in Ascension Parish,” Webre said.

According to court records, Dakota Theriot married briefly in December 2015. The couple separated 11 days later and divorced the following year. His wife told the court Dakota Theriot choked, punched, and slapped her during their three-year relationship, and while drunk, he threw her through a window, breaking her wrist.

After his divorce, Military records show Theriot signed up for basic training in the U.S. armed forces. However, the Army released him four months later for reasons undisclosed.

Neighbors Kim Mincks and Jacob Chastant were friends with Dakota Theriot’s parents. They told the Associated Press that Dakota Theriot had violent outbursts in his parent’s home and that they had recently expelled him because of a drug problem.

Mincks said she’d known Keith and Elizabeth Theriot for about two years and described them as wonderful people. She described Keith Theriot as a disabled veteran who played a wicked guitar. She said Elizabeth Theriot worked at a nearby Dollar General Store.

“They would give you the shirt off their back. They loved everybody,” Mincks said. “They never met a stranger, and they loved each other. They were just the happiest couple.”

Keith Theriot had four children, all boys, Mincks said.

Livingston Parish Sheriff Jason Ard told reporters Theriot had been in a relationship with Summer Ernest. He said he had spoken with Summer’s mother, and “there were no red flags, no sign of anything, so we have no motive. We don’t know why, but we know he did it.”

Ard said Theriot told investigators he stole a gun from his father to shoot Summer Ernest. The sheriff said Theriot had tagged along with Billy Ernest as he drove his wife to work early that Saturday morning. Shortly after, he shot Summer, her father, and her brother, each once in the head.

The Ernests’ neighbor, Charlene Bordelon, told The Advocate newspaper how the two youngest children in the Ernest family, ages seven and one, fled to her home after the shooting. Bordelon said the two children were not wounded.

Bordelon called 911 after the seven-year-old told her Theriot killed their father, brother, and sister. “She was terrified,” Bordelon said of the little girl. “It was so heartbreaking.”

Wednesday afternoon, AnaClaire McKneely, Public Information Officer for the Twenty-first Judicial District Attorney’s Office, released a statement that read in part:

“Theriot pled guilty to three counts of First-Degree Murder in Livingston Parish. As a result, Judge Brenda Ricks imposed three life sentences to be served without the benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence. He is expected to plead guilty to the two other First-Degree Murder charges and receive two more life sentences from Judge Jason Verdigets in Ascension Parish later today.”

Judge Verdigets also sentenced Theriot to life in prison without the benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence on both counts.