Brenda Dupont was stabbed to death in 1988, and a St. Landry Parish jury found an Opelousas man guilty of first-degree murder.
After Benda’s dead body was found in her apartment years earlier, Jonell Rubin’s DNA was matched in 2012 to semen discovered on Dupont.
When authorities got Rubin’s permission to take a DNA sample, which was forwarded to the Louisiana State Police Crime Lab, he was a prisoner in the city jail at the time.
What Happened To Brenda Dupont?
Brenda Dupont was stabbed 31 times and murdered in 1988 at her apartment on the corner of Railroad and Church Streets in Opelousas.
In response to the 2012 finding of DNA evidence, Opelousas resident Joenell Rubin was given a life sentence.
Rubin was arrested for first-degree murder and aggravated rape of the woman, who passed away at the age of 29 when enhanced DNA testing revealed that the semen found within Dupont’s body matched Rubin’s DNA.
In 2012, Rubin was a prisoner in the local jail when detectives got his permission to take a DNA sample. A grand jury from St. Landry Parish indicted him for first-degree murder rather than aggravated rape.
After two days of testimony, during which the prosecutor, Don Richard, claimed Rubin had sexually assaulted Dupont before fatally stabbing her, the case ended in a conviction.
Christopher Tate, a criminal pathologist, testified that Dupont had been stabbed 31 times. Rubin said he had never met Dupont or been to her apartment when speaking to Detective Dwain Grimmett.
Brenda Dupont Sister Linda Nicholas Testified: 1988 Murder Case
Brenda Dupont was residing in an apartment just a few feet right behind Linda Nicholas’s apartment on May 21, 1988, according to testimony from the victim’s sister Linda Nicholas.
Nicholas stated that the defendant visited Nicholas’ daughter Michelle the afternoon before her sister was killed.
According to Nicholas, she got into a fight with the defendant after discovering that he had carried a knife into her home and expelled him.
Dupont’s sister claimed that she made breakfast the following morning and sent her six-year-old son to wake Dupont, but they could not wake up.
When there was still no response at 11:30 a.m., Nicholas became worried and called the police, who found Dupont’s body.
Brenda Dupont was married but split from her husband, and Nicholas testified that she had not seen anyone enter or leave Brenda’s apartment the night of her death.
Joenell Rubin Accused Of Murdering Brenda Dupont
In the 1988 stabbing death of Brenda Dupont, Joenell Rubin was convicted guilty of first-degree murder. Rubin’s DNA was matched in 2012 to semen collected on Dupont when detectives found her dead in her apartment years earlier.
Joenell Rubin, 45, was scheduled to be sentenced on February 18, 2016, by State District Judge Alonzo Harris after his DNA was linked to semen found on Dupont in 2012.
The St. Landry Parish District Attorney’s Office, according to prosecutor Donald Richard, did not seek the death sentence in Rubin’s case. He failed to explain why the DA’s office did not take the death penalty into account.
The Acadiana Crime Lab’s criminal pathologist Christopher Tate testified during a hearing on Tuesday that an autopsy performed on Dupont days after her murder revealed she had been stabbed 31 times.