Louisiana priest Lawrence Hecker dies in prison after life sentence over rape of teenager

CNA Staff, Dec 30, 2024 / 10:55 am

Lawrence Hecker, the disgraced Louisiana priest who was sentenced to life in prison this month over the rape of a teenage boy decades ago, died in prison at age 93 just days after his sentence was handed down.

Ken Pastorick, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety and Corrections, told CNA that Hecker “died at approximately 3 a.m., Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024, at Elayn Hunt Correction Center” in St. Gabriel. 

The priest “died of natural causes,” Pastorick said.

Hecker’s death comes after a high-profile legal process in Louisiana that suffered repeated delays due to the elderly ex-priest’s reported health problems. He was indicted in September 2023 on felony charges related to allegations that he raped an underage teenage boy in the 1970s.

His trial was pushed back multiple times after his indictment as his attorneys claimed he was too sick to attend courtroom proceedings. State prosecutors vowed to bring him into the courtroom on a hospital stretcher in order to allow the trial to continue.

He ultimately pleaded guilty this month to kidnapping and raping the teenage boy. “I think he came to the realization of what that was going to look like, and he made the decision to enter the guilty plea,” Hecker’s attorney Bobby Hjortsberg said after the plea. 

Hecker was handed the life sentence in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court on Dec. 18. The sentence was given by Judge Nandi Campbell “without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension.” 

Hjortsberg told the media after the sentencing that the priest “took responsibility for [the crimes] and I believe that sparing the victims from having to go through the anguish of a trial should give them some closure and allow them to walk away from this knowing they got justice.”