Two local area trials both end with guilty verdicts

The trial of Michael McCool and Audy McCool, that started on Monday, came to a close yesterday when the jury returned guilty verdicts for the father and son.

Michael McCool, 31, and his dad Audy McCool, 53, were accused of shooting a gun shop owner and his teenage son after a dispute over $25 that occurred on January 23, 2016, in Pearl River County in the Henleyfield Community at the McLemore Gun Shop.

Michael McCool could face 20 to 40 year on each of the two counts and Audy McCool could be facing up to 20 years on each of his two counts.

Yesterday, a St. Tammany Parish jury, convicted Jason Magee of Pearl River of two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of his ex-wife and her boyfriend in 2017.

Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty, meaning Magee, 39, faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison. State Judge August Hand set formal sentencing for April 8.

Magee, who did not take the witness stand, was found guilty of the murders of Jennifer Magee, 32, of Pearl River, and her boyfriend, Donald Gros, 34, of Marrero, in the woman’s home on June 19, 2017.

During closing arguments, prosecutor Blair Alford noted that eight shots were fired that night in 2017 in Pearl River, seven of them hitting the victims. “That’s an execution. There are no other words for it.”