Man indicted for officer's murder

A St. Tammany Parish grand jury has indicted a Gulfport, Miss., man on vehicular homicide charges in the death of a St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office corrections officer in February.

James E. Delancey Jr., 37, is accused of killing Kerry Snaples, 22, of Ponchatoula on U.S. Highway 190 near Covington on Feb. 24 in an alcohol related crash.

Snaples was killed at 4:23 a.m. near Redwood Drive, just shy of his two-year anniversary with the Sheriff’s Office.

Snaples, driving a 2000 Honda motorcycle on his way home from work, hit Delancey’s 1996 Chevy S-10 pickup truck, which was stopped on U.S. 190 with no working taillights, police said.

At the time, Lt. Jack West, spokesman for the Covington Police Department, said Delancey’s truck was out of gas and partly in a side ditch.

Snaples was rushed to St. Tammany Parish Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Delancey, whose blood alcohol level registered 0.3 percent, more than three times the legal limit, told police he thought he in his own driveway at the time of the accident, West said.

Delancey was arrested and charged with first offense DWI, driving with a suspended license and vehicular homicide. It is not known why his license is currently under suspension.