On a January night in 2017, gunfire in the 1400 block of Laurel Street in Metairie left three people dead inside a car that had crashed into a utility pole. Victims included 25-year-old Malcolm Wallace, his 16-year-old sister Monica Bates, and Wallace’s 24-year-old girlfriend Daneka Lott of Kenner; all three suffered fatal gunshot wounds.

Investigators focused on a close friend of Wallace, 31-year-old Corey Woods of Metairie, who had reportedly spent the day with Wallace at Wallace’s grandmother’s apartment. Authorities say Woods was inside the vehicle when he opened fire; prosecutors later argued Wallace was the intended target and the other two were killed as witnesses. Woods was arrested by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office and charged with three counts of first-degree murder while already detained on unrelated drug charges.

A jury convicted Woods on three counts of second-degree murder. At sentencing, a judge imposed three mandatory life sentences plus a 50-year sentence on a separate heroin distribution conviction. Did anyone in the Laurel Street area see or hear anything that night that might add detail to the timeline?