BATON ROUGE – Seated in court among family members of murder suspects and the man who died at their hands is someone who is all too familiar with the situation – and he is there supporting those who did the killing.

Jody Plauche, the son of Gary Plauche, has closely watched the case against Jace Crehan and Crehan's fiancee, Brittany Monk. Monk and Crehan confessed to the death of Robert Noce, a sex offender who had molested Monk previously. Noce was killed, Crehan said, after he did not receive jail time in a plea deal related to the sex offenses.

Monk and Crehan attacked Noce in 2015. Monk was pregnant with the couple's child at the time.

“I think that seeing his loved one that was carrying his….unborn child kinda, probably, pushed him over the edge like my father went over the edge,” Plauche said in an exclusive interview on WBRZ News 2 at 6:00 Wednesday.

In the 1980's when Jody Plauche was a child, he was kidnapped and assaulted. Plauche's father killed the suspect when the man was arrested outside of Baton Rouge and flown back to the city. Plauche waited in the airport and shot the man. TV cameras recorded the encounter.

Plauche said his father was worried the offender would not get a severe punishment, so he took justice into his own hands. It's the opposite feeling, Plauche said, Crehan had.

“...[Noce] got the light sentence there was no justice…by giving a man probation,” he told WBRZ reporter Danielle Jackson.

Plauche has been in touch with Crehan's family since hearing of the stabbing two years ago.

Plauche said seeing Crehan show remorse in a recorded interrogation video played in court this week might help Crehan's case. In fact, Plauche said, he is not sure a guilty verdict is coming.

     > CLICK HERE for more from inside the courtroom Wednesday. 

“I don't think 'not guilty' is out of the question,” he said.

Questioned again, he reiterated.

“Not guilty for second-degree murder, not guilty for manslaughter; I'm talking about a complete acquittal,” he added.

Monk pleaded guilty to manslaughter to testify on behalf of the prosecution at trial.

Gary Plauche died in October 2014. 

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