Lacombe man found guilty of beating fellow prisoner

By Erik Sanzenbach
St. Tammany News
Published on Wednesday, October 21, 2009 10:48 AM CDT

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A six-person jury declared a Lacombe man guilty of second-degree battery Thursday for an incident last year when the man beat a fellow prisoner unconscious over the use of a television remote.

Troy Batiste, 46, of Lacombe was in jail awaiting sentencing for an Aug. 22 conviction on second-degree battery and criminal damage to property charges stemming from a road rage incident in 2008.

According to Rick Wood, spokesman for St. Tammany District Attorney Walter Reed, Batiste was watching television with another inmate in October 2008.

Batiste did not like the way the other prisoner was using the remote, so he hit the man several times knocking him unconscious.

In the road rage incident, also in 2008, Batiste rammed a motorist’s car, and then beat the man for allegedly cutting him off in traffic. Batiste will face sentencing on the first second-degree battery charge Oct. 28. District Judge Richard Swartz will sentence Batiste for the second battery charge Nov. 13.

Wood said that Batiste faces a possible term of life in jail if the judge decides that Batiste is a career criminal. Batiste has prior convictions for disturbing the peace in 1999, second-degree battery in 1991, aggravated battery in 1987 and illegal use of a weapon in 1982.

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