French Quarter Dancer Murder: No Appeal In Dismemberment Slaying

NEW ORLEANS, LA — Louisiana's highest court will not listen to an appeal from a man serving a life sentence for murdering a French Quarter dancer and dismembering her body. All seven justices initialed an action sheet rejecting the request from Terry Speaks in the 2012 murder of 22-year-old Jaren Lockhart.

Speaks acted as his own attorney and a second inmate prepared the document. He was convicted two years ago of stabbing Lockhart in the heart, dismembering her and dumping her body parts in the Gulf of Mexico. Most washed onto Mississippi beaches. Some were never found. She was identified by DNA; numerous tattoos that could've identified her were cut out.

Co-defendant Margaret Sanchez pleaded guilty to manslaughter and is serving 40 years. (For more information on Speaks's case and other French Quarter stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

The state Supreme Court's action, released late Monday, allowed a state appeal court's decision to stand that upheld Speaks' convictions for obstruction of justice, conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice, and second-degree murder.

The murder charge carries a mandatory life sentence. District Judge Stephen Grefer found Speaks to be a habitual offender and increased the jury's 40-year sentence on the obstruction charge to a second life term, to be served after the first.

Defense attorneys had also argued that Grefer should not have let Speaks represent himself during jury selection and early testimony. In a separate brief, Speaks said the judge should also have asked about his knowledge of state law and his history of mental illness.

"The trial judge advised Defendant of the dangers and disadvantages of self-representation, and Defendant indicated he understood them," Judge Marc E. Johnson wrote in a 64-page ruling for the 5th Circuit Court of Appeal.

Defense lawyers also contended that the state had too little evidence, and that two inmates who testified that he told them details of the crime were lying to get reduced sentences. In his request to the Louisiana Supreme Court, Speaks wrote that those inmates' testimony included only information available through news or the internet.

Even without their testimony, Johnson wrote, other evidence "overwhelmingly showed" that a rational jury could reasonably convict Speaks.

By JANET McCONNAUGHEY, Associated Press

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