Port Barre Man Convicted Of Negligent Homicide In Girlfriend’s Death

A St. Landry Parish jury convicted Port Barre man, Kurt Miller, of negligent homicide Friday for the 2009 death of his girlfriend Laura Coates.

According to our news partners at KATC, St. Landry Parish District Attorney Earl Taylor said the jury reached the guilty verdict by a 10-2 vote.

Though Miller claimed in his testimony that Coates had overdosed and been unresponsive when he called 911 on the night that she died, the coroner and an emergency room doctor found injuries consistent with blunt force trauma. Her injuries included a bruised abdomen, brain hemorraging and a fractured spine.

Though the doctors agreed that there were drugs in Coates' system the night she died it was not enough for her to have died of an overdose.