Disclaimer: All persons are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
LAKE CHARLES, La. (KLFY/KTAL) – A man captured in Lake Charles late last week on a warrant for murder out of Natchitoches is also charged in a homicide in Lake Charles, according to police.
Kendrick Cox, 31, was the subject of a six-month manhunt by multiple law enforcement agencies in connection with the death of 35-year-old Joshua Lee Humphries of Trout, Louisiana. Trout’s body was found in a Natchitoches Parish oxidation pond in February.
Cox was taken into custody in Lake Charles on Friday, two days after police say he killed Tafford Deshotel. The 66-year-old was found dead inside his home in the 1100 block of 11th Street by officers called there for a welfare check. Evidence and DNA testing led investigators to identify Cox as a suspect in the slaying, according to LCPD.
Cox was taken into custody Friday afternoon by Lake Charles PD, their SWAT Unit, and other agencies following a surveillance operation at a Lake Charles apartment complex. Investigators say an unidentified male picked him up at the apartment complex. As officers attempted to initiate a traffic stop, Cox tried to run but he was taken into custody a short distance away.
Cox was booked into the Calcasieu Correctional Center on one count of first-degree murder with bond set at $1 million, but he will remain held on the first-degree murder warrant out of Natchitoches Parish.