ATLANTA (Court TV) — Defense attorneys for a man accused of killing his girlfriend suggested evidence may have been planted in his case as his trial began on Tuesday.
Eugene Louis-Jacques sits in court on the first day of his murder trial. (Court TV)
Eugene Louis-Jacques, 24, has pleaded not guilty to malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, arson, concealing a death and tampering with evidence in the death of Beauty Couch, 22. At the time of her death, Couch was a roller skating influencer with more than 100,000 Instagram followers.
Couch disappeared on Aug. 22, 2023. Her mother became concerned after she couldn’t reach her daughter all day and began calling Couch’s boyfriend, who also did not answer his phone. Less than 24 hours later, police arrived at Couch’s mother’s door to report they had found her Dodge Dart on fire.
When investigators were told that Couch was missing, they returned to the scene of the burned car to find her body less than 200 feet away. It had been dumped in a wooded area covered in branches. She had been stabbed 81 times.
Prosecutor Stephanie Green told the jury in her opening statement that the defendant and victim met at a beauty conference in Orlando; shortly thereafter, Louis-Jacques moved to Georgia to be with Couch, who lived in Austell. The two began dating in April 2023.
Green conceded that there is no forensic evidence tying Louis-Jacques to Couch’s murder: His DNA was not found anywhere on her body, and her blood was not found on his clothing or in his car. The Dodge, which belonged to Couch’s mother, was burned so extensively that there was no evidence left to collect — except for a piece of paper.
“It’s so bizarre, it’s so unreal, it can’t be a coincidence,” Louis-Jacques’ attorney, Bryan Lumpkin, told the jury. “It is curious enough, you know, of all of the things to eliminate all this other evidence, but leave a piece of paper. I can’t just think of it. You start a fire, you roll up a piece of paper, you light it to start the fire. What happens to that piece of paper? It’s in the fire. But they’re going to suggest to you, well, somehow this piece of paper was not put in there and was somehow put into a box, put into a container in the trunk of a car, just to sit there for no apparent reason. And intriguingly, that piece of paper happens to have Eugene’s name on it. It’s a pay stub — a wage-earning statement. That somehow, the thing that would not be burned would be the information that identifies him.”
Louis-Jacques’ attorney conceded that immediately after the murder, his client fled to Louisiana, where he was arrested. “He knows he’s a likely suspect, and he doesn’t want to get caught,” Lumpkin explained. “He’s guilty of being the best suspect they could come up with — really, the only suspect they chose to look at — and then trying to avoid being that suspect.”
Green argued that the defendant’s flight to Louisiana is further evidence of his guilt and said that a rolled paper was found in his car with burnt tips at the time of his arrest.
Louis-Jacques faces a possible life sentence if he’s convicted.
