TEXAS DPS TOP TEN FUGITIVE ARRESTED BY LAFOURCHE PARISH SHERIFF’S OFFICE AND EDLA U.S. MARSHALS CRESCENT STAR FUGITIVE TASK FORCE

On January 18, 2007, the Eastern District of Louisiana (EDLA) U.S. Marshals Crescent Star Fugitive Task Force (CSFTF) and the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office arrested Darrell Wayne Parker, 46 years old, on his job site off of Hwy. 24 in Larose, Louisiana. Parker, who was wanted on an February 2005, Texas Department of Safety (DPS) parole warrant for voluntary manslaughter, was also wanted on a warrant from November 2006, charging him with aggravated sexual assault of a child.

The U.S. Marshals office in Beaumont, Texas received a Crime Stoppers tip that Parker was living in the Larose, Louisiana area and asked CSFTF to investigate. Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies and CSFTF deputies located him living in a small travel trailer on his job site at a sandblasting company. He was arrested without incident. Investigators believe that Parker, who had been on the run since February of 2005, came to Louisiana about a month prior to today’s arrest.

Parker’s Texas parole warrant was related to parole violations for the March 21, 1991, killing of a 26 year old female in Port Arthur, Texas, by beating her to death with his fists.

The sexual assault warrant on Parker was issued in November of 2006, for an incident involving an eleven year old boy who was living at an apartment complex in Beaumont, Texas where Parker was residing.

CSFTF, which is sponsored by the EDLA U.S. Marshals Service, began in 1999 and relies on the assistance of state and local law enforcement agencies to locate and arrest fugitives. Almost 4000 fugitives have been apprehended by CSFTF since it’s inception. Deputies from CSFTF have also helped to patrol New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, assisted Louisiana Department of Corrections Probation and Parole and the New Orleans Police Department in tracking post Katrina sex offenders, and continue to provide manpower and intelligence support to the New Orleans Police Department Violent Offender Warrant Squad (VOWS). Law enforcement officers from state and local agencies are commissioned as Special Deputy U.S. Marshals allowing them greater jurisdiction. These officers also bring fugitive investigations from their jurisdictions for CSFTF to work. Current CSFTF members include the New Orleans Police Department, the Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff’s Office, the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office, Louisiana Probation and Parole, Bogalusa Police Department, and the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Services. CSFTF also works with other federal law enforcement agencies to track their fugitives.