Hitmen came to kill her daughter. So Louisiana mom pretended to be target, cops say
A Louisiana mother sacrificed her life for her daughter’s when she told a gunman she was the target he had been hired to kill, officials said, “accepting her fate to save the life of an actual victim.”
Brittany Cormier, 34, was one of two women killed in a botched murder-for-hire plot last month in Montegut, a town about 70 miles southwest of New Orleans, according to the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office. Her neighbor, Hope Nettleton, 37, died in a struggle with the gunman.
“We’ve had double homicides,” Sheriff Timothy Soignet said of the Jan. 13 incident, The Advocate reported. “They’re all bad and horrible, but with a murder-for-hire, there’s always a motive for someone to want to kill somebody like that.”
Investigators said they learned Cormier’s brother, an accused rapist and convicted sex offender, ordered a “hit” on his own niece to keep her from testifying in court, according to police. He had been arrested in a nearby parish and charged with her rape.
Beaux Cormier, 35, now faces two counts of first-degree murder, Soignet said.
His accused henchmen, 25-year-old Andrew Eskine and 22-year-old Dalvin Wilson, are also charged with murder in addition to attempted first-degree murder and criminal conspiracy to commit murder, according to the sheriff’s office. Beaux Cormier is also charged with solicitation for murder for hire.
Soignet said the hitmen “asked for the rape victim by name” when they arrived at Brittany Cormier’s home that night, WGNO reported. That’s when she lied and told them she was the victim, “likely saving the life of the actual rape victim,” Soignet said.
Deputies arrived at the home to find Cormier and Nettleton suffering from gunshot wounds, according to police. Both were pronounced dead at the scene.
Cormier’s daughter and stepdaughter hid in a closet and were unharmed in the incident, The Advocate reported.
Samantha LeMaire, a family friend, said Cormier “would do anything for her kids.”
“Maybe they hid in the closet because they were scared,” LeMaire said, according to the newspaper. “But I like to think she locked them in the closet to protect them.”
Authorities said Beaux Cormier, Eskine and Wilson previously traveled to Montegut to surveil the house and had tried to carry out the murder on previous date — but failed.
All three were booked into jail on murder charges Monday, and their bonds were set at $2 million, Terrebonne Parish Major Claude Triche told McClatchy News. The sheriff’s office filed additional charges Tuesday, for which no bond has been set.
This story was originally published February 4, 2021 at 11:18 AM with the headline "Hitmen came to kill her daughter. So Louisiana mom pretended to be target, cops say."