Cops: When Hit Men Came, She Lied, Took Bullet for Daughter

A Louisiana man accused of raping his niece is now suspected of hiring two hit men to kill her before she could testify against him—except instead of killing his niece, the two hit men mistakenly killed the suspect's own sister and another woman, police say. Per KLFY, the office of Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Timothy Soignet alleges that Beaux Cormier, 35, hired Andrew Eskine, 25, and Dalvin Wilson, 22, to take out his niece. Police say the men tried once in November and failed, but went back to her Montegut home on Jan. 13, where they encountered 34-year-old Brittany Cormier, Beaux Cormier's sister, WVUE reports. "Brittany Cormier tells the shooter she's the rape victim, accepting her fate to save the life of an actual victim," Soignet said Monday, per the Washington Post. The men shot her, then shot neighbor Hope Nettleton, 37, when she started struggling with them, police say.

According to Soignet and Samantha LeMaire, a close friend of Brittany Cormier, the latter's daughter (the niece said to have been raped by Beaux Cormier) and stepdaughter were hiding in a closet when the women were shot. "Maybe they hid in the closet because they were scared," LeMaire tells the Acadiana Advocate. "But I like to think she locked them in the closet to protect them." She adds that while she knew her friend "would do anything for her kids ... I would have never thought it would ever have come down to this." All three men, who've been charged with first-degree murder, remain behind bars with a $2 million bond each, though officials are looking to increase those bonds. The DA's office says it may ask for the death penalty. (More hit man stories.)