On February 14, 1984, 25-year-old Jeffrey Doucet kidnapped 11-year-old Jody Plauché and took him to a motel in Anaheim, California, where he sexually assaulted and molested him. Doucet was a karate instructor who had been sexually abusing the boy for at least a year. Police searched the country for Jody, and he was eventually found after Doucet allowed the boy to place a collect call to his mother from the motel. California police raided the motel and arrested Doucet.
Jody's father Gary, who was separated from his wife at the time, heard reports Doucet had sexually assaulted his son. Gary, 38 at the time, said he felt a sense of helplessness upon hearing these reports.
On Friday, March 16, 1984, Doucet was flown back to Louisiana to face trial. Gary Plauché learned from a local TV station WBRZ news report when Doucet would be arriving at Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport.
Doucet was led in handcuffs by police officers through the airport at around 9:30 pm, where Plauché was waiting with a handgun. A WBRZ news crew was waiting for Doucet and had set up their cameras to record his arrival. Opposite the crew was a bank of payphones, where Plauché waited while talking to his best friend on a telephone. He wore a baseball cap and sunglasses, so no one would recognize him.
As Doucet was escorted through the airport, he passed the crew who were taping the scene. He then walked past Plauché, who took out his handgun and fired a single shot directly at the right side of Doucet's head. The filthy pedo fell into a coma and died the next day.
“Why, Gary, why’d you do it?” Mike Barnett, the sheriff’s deputy, shouted as he and another officer disarmed Plauché.
“If somebody did it to your kid, you’d do it, too!” Plauché cried.
Plauché was initially charged with second-degree murder, but agreed to a plea bargain in which he pleaded no contest to manslaughter. Judge Frank Saia ruled that sending Plauché to prison would not help anyone, and that there was virtually no risk of him committing another crime. He was sentenced to seven years' suspended sentence, with five years' probation and 300 hours of community service, which he completed in 1989.
At age 67, Plauché gave an interview where he stated that he did not regret killing Doucet and would do so again.
Sadly, Leon Gary Plauché passed away on October 20, 2014 after the second of two strokes, aged 68. Please raise a glass in memory of this heroic father.
