CONVICTED SEX OFFENDER, Bordelon, Executed

Posted: 01/08/10 – 02:26:07 pm CST

ANGOLA, La. (AP) — A convicted sex offender who confessed to strangling his 12-year-old stepdaughter and leaving her partially clothed body in a wooded area of Livingston Parish in 2002 was executed Thursday night.

Gerald Bordelon, 47, was pronounced dead at 6:32 p.m. at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, after receiving lethal drug injections. He was sentenced to death for the murder of Courtney LeBlanc, whom he kidnapped at knifepoint from her home seven years ago.

Just before his execution, Bordelon apologized to LeBlanc’s mother, uncle and sister, who witnessed the execution, and he asked for their forgiveness.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know if that brings any closure or peace. It should have never happened, but it did, and I’m sorry,” he said, choking up and halting to collect himself.

His eyes red-rimmed from crying, Bordelon added, “I’d like to apologize to my family and tell them that I love them.”

Against his white T-shirt Bordelon wore a gold cross given to him by his 19-year-old daughter, with whom he exchanged necklaces earlier in the day. He had given her a cross made by his fellow inmates.

It was Louisiana’s first execution since 2002.

Bordelon’s lawyer Jill Craft said Bordelon became the first person in Louisiana to successfully refuse a death sentence appeal since the death penalty was reinstated more than three decades ago.

When Bordelon asked to waive his appeal, he said he would “commit the same crime again if ever given the chance,” according to court documents.

On parole following a rape conviction, Bordelon abducted LeBlanc on Nov. 15, 2002, from his estranged wife’s trailer with a knife from the kitchen, took her to Amite County, where he forced her to perform a sex act on him, then drove back to Louisiana and strangled her. When LeBlanc’s body was found 11 days later, she was wearing only a pair of shorts and one tennis shoe.

Bordelon led police to her body in a wooded area by the Amite River in Livingston Parish, about 20 miles from Baton Rouge.

Bordelon met with his family at the Angola prison Thursday in the hours before his execution. For his last meal he ate fried sac-a-lait fish, topped with crawfish etouffee, a peanut butter and apple jelly sandwich and chocolate chip cookies, said Pam Laborde, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections.

Three of LeBlanc’s relatives watched the execution, including LeBlanc’s uncle Damian Kocke, her sister Brittany Boudreaux and her mother Jennifer Kocke, who was convicted of child abuse in Amite County for allowing Bordelon near her children after they accused him of molestation. Sniffling could be heard from the separate room where they watched Bordelon die. The family didn’t speak to reporters after his death.

After Bordelon made his final statement, seven men strapped him to the black padded gurney and removed his shackles. Wearing a T-shirt and blue jeans, he stared at the ceiling as prison officials closed the curtains for the insertion of the intravenous tubes.

The curtains were reopened after he was connected to the IVs. Bordelon spoke to warden Burl Cain, and he took several deep breaths as the drugs took hold. Cain said the convicted killer again repeated his remorse and asked Cain to tell his daughter that he wasn’t afraid.At 6:32 p.m., Cain said, “We now pronounce Gerald Bordelon dead. We’ve sent his soul for final judgment.”

Death penalty opponents with the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana held a vigil in New Orleans at the time of the execution.

Bordelon’s mother, daughter and two sisters released a statement, calling LeBlanc’s death a “horribly tragic loss for our family. Courtney became very close with our family, and we all loved her dearly.”

They also said Bordelon “fought an insurmountable problem in his psyche his entire life.”

Bordelon had two prior felony convictions for sexual assault and was sent to psychiatric treatment in 1979 after being accused of rape and kidnapping. He pleaded guilty to sexual battery in 1982 and was convicted of rape and crimes against nature in 1990, court records show.

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He was on parole when he met Kocke over the Internet and married her a year later. They separated after LeBlanc and her sister told their mother that Bordelon touched them inappropriately, but Kocke remained in contact with Bordelon after the split, according to court documents.

Louisiana Parole Board officials said an officer spoke with Kocke before the marriage, notifying her that Bordelon was a convicted sex offender. Kocke was convicted of child abuse in Mississippi in October 2003 for failing to keep Bordelon away from her children. She received a suspended five-year sentence, with five years of probation.

Bordelon also was part of a failed jail escape attempt in October 2003.

SOURCE: http://www.enterprise-journal.com/articles/2010/01/08/news/01.txt