Man pleads guilty in child’s death
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BENTON, LA (KTBS) — A Bossier City man arrested three years ago in the death of his girlfriend’s 15-month-old child pleaded guilty Monday in Bossier District Court to a reduced charge of manslaughter.
Tristan Deon Williams, 31, was originally charged with first-degree murder in the March 2017 death of Serenity Slone. He had pleaded not guilty and was scheduled to go to trial Monday.
Williams was arrested after Serenity died at a Shreveport hospital days after she was taken there for treatment of blunt force trauma to her head. The child was in Williams’ care at the time she suffered the injury.
Williams faces 10 to 40 years in prison and will be sentenced on Dec. 4.
Williams was charged with first-degree murder because of the age of his victim. That also made him eligible for the death penalty. However, the district attorney’s office decided early on it would not pursue a death sentence if Williams was convicted.
In another court matter, the second-degree murder trial of Jareona Crosby will be rescheduled. She’s set for a status conference on Nov. 10.
Crosby, now 19, is the remaining defendant in the deadly 2018 shooting that claimed the life of a Barksdale Air Force Base airman. She rejected a plea offer in July
Crosby is accused in the death of TSgt. Joshua Kidd outside of his Bossier City home. Investigators said Kidd, 30, was killed after he found two would-be car burglars in the garage of his home as he was getting ready to go to work. He was shot as he chased one of them.
The district attorney’s office has maintained Crosby was the shooter.
Her co-defendant, Alonzo Wilson, 16, pleaded guilty in October prior to the start of his second-degree murder trial. He was prosecuted as an adult and sentenced to 50 years without the benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence.
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