Court records show Dejuan Guillory’s sentence for ATM theft was deferred

Since the deputy-involved shooting that resulted in the death of Dejuan Guillory, many have wondered why the recently sentenced man wasn’t behind bars at the time of his July 6, 2017 altercation with an Evangeline Parish Sheriff’s Deputy.
In August of 2015, Guillory was arrested and accused of using a backhoe to steal an ATM from Citizens Bank in Mamou, and for shooting at the Mamou Police Officer who was attempting to locate the suspect.
Originally, Guillory charged in this incident with attempted murder, theft, three counts of simple criminal damage to property and aggravated criminal damage to property.
Those charges were amended by the state to one count of simple criminal damage to property, while the remaining charges were dropped.
After spending 16 months in jail, Guillory pled no contest to simple criminal damage to property charge. For his plea, the 21-year-old was sentenced to 10 years at hard labor with five years suspended, five years of active supervised probation, and given credit for time served.
Although he was sentenced to serve five years in prison, court records show that Guillory received a deferred sentence.
A deferred sentence allows a defendant the opportunity to have their sentence put on hold, which in-turn gives them the chance to stay out of trouble instead of going to jail.
These sentences are usually given if the defendant does not have a lengthy criminal record, or if the prosecutor has a weak case with little evidence to establish the defendant’s guilt.
However, if a defendant is unable to stay out of trouble during their probation period, then the defendant could be forced to serve their original sentence. If they remain out of trouble for a specified amount of time, then their sentence may be suspended.