Multiple killer gets 80 years

A former Death Row inmate accused of killing five people at a 1995 birthday party in New Orleans pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of manslaughter and received an 80-year prison sentence.
Jury selection was under way when Juan Smith's attorneys said he was ready to plead rather than face trial on first-degree murder charges.
Judge Frank Marullo rejected the 40-year deal agreed to by the defense and the district attorney prior to jury selection so the matter proceeded until Smith, 39, changed his mind Monday night.
Eight jurors had already been selected inside Orleans Parish Criminal District Judge Frank Marullo's courtroom when attorneys for Smith, 39, who was facing a retrial on five counts of first-degree murder, told the judge he was ready to plead guilty to the lesser charges.
Marullo sentenced Smith to consecutive 40-year sentences on each manslaughter count -- with credit given to the time (19 yeaers) he has already served. Smith has been behind bars for 19 years, 16 of those spent on Death Row for a conviction in a separate, triple murder.
On March 1, 1995, police said, Smith and two other men busted into a house in robbery attempt, killing five people, including a teenager.
Smith was convicted and received five life sentences, until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that his constitutional right to due process was violated because prosecutors with then-District Attorney Harry Connick's office did not turn over evidence that could have been favorable to Smith's defense.
Smith received the death penalty in the 1995 triple murder. It claimed the lives of ex-wife of former Saints player Bennie Thompson; her boyfriend, Andre White; and her 3-year-old son, Devyn Thompson.
Smith is currently seeking to overturn that conviction.
Several convictions from Connick's tenure have been overturned based on similar claims that prosecutors withheld evidence that could have been favorable to the defense.
Earlier this year, Smith turned down a deal to plead guilty to two counts of manslaughter for both murder sprees. Monday's offered deal applied only to the more recent case.