BATON ROUGE — Meshell Hale, the Baton Rouge woman convicted of poisoning her live-in boyfriend to death, will remain in jail after she was denied a post-conviction bond.
“Based on all of the trial testimony and the history of this case, we believe this was the correct decision to hold her without bond pending her appeal. I believe she has shown the ability to make other substantial bonds in the past and based on her history, she is a danger to the public, especially those close to her and a potential flight risk,” said 19th JDC District Attorney Hillar Moore.
The recent hearing came after the 1st Circuit Court of Appeal tossed out the initial judge’s ruling that Hale be granted a $300,000 post-conviction bond.
Meshell Hale, 55, was found guilty in December 2022 of second-degree murder in the death of Damian Skipper.
District Court Judge Raymond Bigelow conducted the trial. Bigelow sentenced Hale to a mandatory life term on Dec. 20 and granted her the $300K post-conviction bond, the same amount set for her bond as she awaited trial.
In the 1st Circuit Court of Appeal in January, three appellate court justices agreed Bigelow abused his discretion. As a result, the ruling was vacated and Hale’s case returned to the 19th JDC.
The 1st Circuit Court of Appeal sent it back to the 19th JDC for Bigelow to explain why he issued the bond but since Bigelow was serving on an interim basis until the end of December 2022 and is longer there, the case was assigned to Judge Gail Horne Ray. Ray was elected in the Dec. 10 election.
Ray said a post-conviction bond is never done in murder cases, so she denied it.
Meshell Hale was also implicated in the death of her ex-husband, Arthur Noflin Jr.
In March 2016, Noflin’s remains were found in a truck set on fire in New Orleans. The cause of his death was unclassified because he was burned so badly. However, because of both men’s connection to Hale, Skipper’s body was exhumed and re-examined.
A grand jury indicted Hale for the first-degree murder of Skipper. However, she never was charged in her ex-husband’s death.
Unfiltered with Kiran did put in a call to Hale’s lawyer for comment. As of this report, we have not heard back.
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Hey, Kiran !
THIS is the type of person who should be locked up, NOT persons who exercise their first amendment rights !!!!!!