A man accused in an April triple murder in Lafayette will not face the death penalty.
The District Attorney's Office of the 15th Judicial District in Lafayette filed a notice Monday advising Chad Credeur, 42, will not face the death penalty if convicted.
Credeur is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in connection with the April 11 shooting deaths of Elizabeth Reames, 46, Brandon Touchet, 45, and Eric Green, 49, at an apartment complex at 701 South College Road in Lafayette.
The bodies were found after Touchet's family asked law enforcement officers to conduct a welfare check when they had not heard from him for a while. Green was a popular University of Louisiana at Lafayette professor.
Credeur was allegedly a friend of the three victims.
Punishment for a conviction of first-degree murder includes the death penalty or imprisonment at hard labor for life without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence.
The District Attorney's Office also on Monday filed a motion to transfer and reassign the case to a different track.
Assistant District Attorney Donald Knecht Jr. wrote that Credeur's case was assigned to judges in Track 3 after his July 24 indictment by a Lafayette Parish grand jury.
He previously was charged in a Bill of Information dated Aug. 10, 2020, with second-degree battery, simple burglary and simple robbery which allegedly occurred Nov. 22, 2018. The case was assigned to judges in Track 2.
A state "felony following felony" rule allows the transfer of the case to the track assigned for the earlier felony, which is Track 2.
Credeur has a Dec. 2 court date for the judge to consider motions in the triple murder case, court records show.
His trial on the other charges, documents show, may begin on that day as well.