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Traffic stop led BRPD to key evidence in toddler's unsolved killing; still no arrests a year later
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BATON ROUGE - Newly filed court documents have revealed that during a traffic stop last year detectives found a gun linked to the long-unsolved killing of a 3-year-old, though it appears the weapon has not led police to an arrest in the toddler's murder more than a year later.
The revelation came Friday in a lengthy court filing from District Attorney Hillar Moore, who's seeking to have bond revoked for a juvenile murder suspect. That motion laid out the failures of Criminal Tracking Service, an ankle monitor company tasked with tracking 17-year-old accused killer Johnny Brown, who was charged with murder in March 2021 in an unrelated case.
After he was charged as an adult in that killing more than two years ago, Brown was released on bond and placed under GPS monitoring.
According to a letter from BRPD detectives, which was included in the filing, Brown was arrested in a traffic stop on June 9, 2022 — just under two months after 3-year-old Devin Page Jr.'s death — after police found the teenager with drugs and a gun equipped with a "switch," a device used to convert a pistol into a fully automatic machine gun. Forensic analysis of that weapon revealed that it was used in the shootout on Fairfields Avenue that killed Page, though it did not appear that it was the gun that fired the fatal shot.
Police have said that Page was sleeping in his bed on April 12, 2022 when a stray bullet went through the window of his bedroom. For more than year, Page's family has pleaded for someone to come forward with information that might lead to an arrest in the innocent boy's killing.
"I'm just ready for the closure, for justice for my son so me and my family can have peace." Tye Toliver, Devin's mother, told WBRZ Friday night. "They just need somebody to call. They don't need your name... I just want people to call."
The documents filed Friday said that Brown was supposed to be under GPS monitoring on the night of Page's death, but the charger was disconnected a day earlier — on April 11 — and his location was not picked up again until April 23.
WBRZ has reached out to BRPD Friday night for a comment on the investigation.
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