Former youth center guard pleads guilty to charge related to teens’ 2019 suicides
After the deaths
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COUSHATTA, Louisiana (KTBS) — A former guard who was on duty when two teens died by suicide at a youth corrections center has pleaded guilty to malfeasance in office.
The plea Monday in Red River Parish District Court comes almost 5-1/2 years after the deaths.
Jhanquial Germarrio Smith, 33, of Coushatta, will be sentenced on Oct. 3.
Smith was arrested in 2020 along with another guard, Marvin Ray Rogers, 30, of Coushatta. Rogers died in 2021 in car crash in Red River Parish.
Smith and Rogers were on duty at Ware Youth Detention Center when Solan Peterson, 13, of Haughton, and Jordan Bachman, 17, of Denver, Colo., died by suicide days apart in February 2019.
After the deaths, inspectors with the state Department of Children and Family Services found multiple violations at Ware, revealing both suicides could have been prevented.
The state Office of Inspector General concluded in a report released in April that Ware is a safe and secure environment.
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