BATON ROUGE - The East Baton Rouge district attorney won't pursue the death penalty for a man accused in two potentially racially-motivated killings last year.

Kenneth Gleason is facing charges in the 2017 shootings of Donald Smart and Bruce Cofield in Baton Rouge. He is also accused of shooting into a black family's home.  In both deadly shootings, police say Gleason had no known connections to the victims.

DA Hillar Moore says Smart's family requested that the death penalty not be sought due to their religious beliefs. Moore says he's also looking to consolidate the two murders into one case. 

A trial is set for March 11, 2019, with a status hearing scheduled for this December.