Louisiana
Ankle monitoring company to face negligent homicide trial in Louisiana woman’s 2021 murder
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – The Louisiana Supreme Court has ruled that a Mississippi-based electronic monitoring company can be tried for negligent homicide in the case of Peggy Beasley, a mother of three murdered by her estranged husband Marshall Rayburn.
The monitoring company AEM allegedly failed to report multiple breaches of a court-ordered security perimeter around Beasley’s home, which prosecutors say allowed Rayburn the opportunity to kill her.
“Had I thought he would do it, I would have never let my mom stay at her home by herself,” Beasley’s daughter, Devlin Hopper, said.
In August 2021, Beasley reported to St. Francisville authorities that Rayburn, from whom she was separated, had been drugging and raping her.
Rayburn was arrested for second-degree rape, released on a $100,000 bond, and outfitted with an ankle monitor. He was instructed to stay away from Beasley’s home, with an exclusion zone programmed into the monitor.
Despite this, Rayburn breached the exclusion zone five times within four days, triggering notifications to AEM. However, the company failed to alert authorities.
Over the following weeks, Rayburn repeatedly violated the zone.
On Sept. 20, 2021, Rayburn entered Beasley’s home, hid in the laundry room with a gun and attacked her.
A neighbor heard the screams and tried to help.
“Marshall put the gun to the neighbor’s chest and fired through her chest, through her back, and hit (Beasley) and killed her,” District Attorney Sam D’Aquilla recounted.
Rayburn then turned the gun on himself. Crime scene photos revealed Rayburn had wrapped his ankle monitor in aluminum foil to block the signal, a violation that also went unreported by AEM.
“He blatantly broke the rules. He tested them,” said Beasley’s son, Jared Crow. “The GPS data shows that.”
D’Aquilla charged AEM’s owner and an employee with negligent homicide for not reporting the violations.
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Beasley’s murder prompted new legislation requiring monitoring companies to report breaches or face penalties, including imprisonment and fines.
“It’s a slap in the face to the victims and the public,” D’Aquilla said. “These are dangerous individuals being monitored with no oversight.”
The law, effective January 1, will make Louisiana the first state to hold monitoring companies criminally accountable for failing to report violations.
“If you screw this stuff up, you can go to jail,” said Matt Dennis of ASAP Release, who is helping revamp state electronic monitor protocols.
Although the new law came too late for Peggy Beasley, her family hopes it will prevent future tragedies.
“That’s one of the hardest things for my brothers and daughters, knowing her life could have been saved so many times. It didn’t have to be this,” Hopper said. “We miss her. She was one of a kind. She truly was.”
The case against AEM will move forward after the Supreme Court upheld the indictment, which was initially appealed by the company.
“The system failed. We’re doing everything we can to hold somebody accountable for the death of their mother,” D’Aquilla stated.
Fox 8 reached out to AEM for comment but received no response.
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Louisiana
DHS watchdog finds use-of-force issues and safety and sanitation concerns at Louisiana ICE center
A Department of Homeland Security watchdog report revealed that staff members at an ICE detention center in Louisiana used a prohibited chokehold to “gain control” of a person being held there and stabbed another in the hand with a pen when an officer could not close the door to a housing unit.
The newly released findings about Winn Correctional Center in central Louisiana follow the DHS inspector general’s review of video of the use-of-force incidents as part of an unannounced facility inspection. The report, which was published on the DHS website, also noted that the officer who stabbed the detainee with a pen was disciplined.
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Staff members failed to maintain safe and sanitary conditions, the report says, noting leaking vents and ceilings with insulation falling through. Staff members used napkins and Styrofoam containers to collect the water from the leaks, according to the report.
Scrutiny of conditions inside ICE detention centers that house more than 60,000 detainees has been growing.
Earlier Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin defended his agency’s detention standards on Capitol Hill amid complaints about ICE’s Delaney Hall detention facility in Newark, New Jersey. That center has been the site of frequent protests.
Rep. Tim Kennedy, D-N.Y., accused Mullin of leaving detainees without food or medical care.
Mullin rejected the claims. “You can say all you want, but don’t accuse me of something that’s not accurate,” he said.
The inspector general made nine recommendations, ranging from environmental health and safety standards to proper handling of use-of-force incidents and maintaining food service standards.
ICE is working to address all of the issues, including by providing additional staff training, a spokesperson for the agency said.
“These minor infractions included failing to provide detainees exercise equipment, record keeping errors and leaking vents. Another infraction included providing a shared computer for legal research that would allow other detainees to see other detainees’ case information,” the spokesperson said.
A spokesperson for DHS said the report shows that the facility complies with detention standards.
“ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens,” the spokesperson said.
Winn Correctional is one of the largest ICE detention centers in the country, housing more than 1,500 men. It opened in 1990, and ICE took it over from the state in 2019.
The report was produced after an unannounced inspection by the DHS inspector general, whose office recently got an infusion of $20 million and plans to boost its inspections from four to six per year to potentially as many as 40 to 60.
ICE lists 70% of the 1,500 detainees at Winn as having “No ICE threat level,” meaning they do not have violent criminal histories.
Winn is an hour north of Alexandria, which is one of four hubs for ICE deportation flights around the country.
METAIRIE, La. (WVUE) – Louisiana insurance officials will hold a press conference Wednesday to acknowledge the retirement of bonds issued after hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple and Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corporation leadership will provide an update on the state-backed insurer as hurricane season begins.
The press conference is scheduled for 1 p.m.
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CALVIN, La. (WVUE) – A small community in north-central Louisiana is working to preserve an important piece of its history.
During the Great Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps put young men to work replanting by hand the state’s only national forest.
The tiny community of Calvin, tucked away in the resulting pine forest, holds only a few other remaining crumbling clues of that work, as Dave McNamara finds in the Heart of Louisiana.
For more, visit the Heart of Louisiana archive here.
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Copyright 2026 WVUE. All rights reserved.
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