A Lafayette man is on trial for murder in the 2016 deaths of a Lafayette couple.
Joshua Willis, 39, of Lafayette, faces a charge of first-degree murder in the death of 23-year-old Ashley Metz and second-degree murder in the death of 22-year-old Brouklynn Hill, who were found shot dead inside separate burning cars in the Scott and Carencro areas in the early morning hours of June 21, 2016.
Willis faces a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence if convicted as charged. Prosecutors are not pursuing the death penalty as part of the first-degree murder charge.
The trial began Monday with prosecutors Alan Haney and Roya Boustany taking testimony from 29-year-old Joseph Sylvester, Willis’s nephew, who was also arrested and charged with murder in the case. Sylvester entered a plea deal in July 2021 with the 15th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, pleading guilty to lesser counts of obstruction of justice and aggravated burglary in the case.
Sylvester was sentenced to 40 years at hard labor on the obstruction charge and 10 years on the aggravated burglary charge, to run concurrently, with the possibility his sentence would be reduced in exchange for his testimony in the case.
Documents filed by the district attorney’s office acknowledge the assistance agreement and said Sylvester would testify that he was present when Willis shot both Hill and Metz and abandoned their bodies in two vehicles that he then set on fire.
The documents said Sylvester would testify that he, Hill and Willis were driving together when Willis, the front seat passenger, shot and killed Hill, who was in the backseat. The uncle and nephew then picked up another vehicle and drove to a third location, where Willis burned Hill’s body inside a vehicle.
Afterward, the duo traveled to Metz’s apartment, where Willis bound her hands with a T-shirt and took Metz in her vehicle to another location, where Sylvester says he saw Willis shoot and kill Metz before setting her car on fire with her body inside, the filing said.
Metz’s body was found inside a burning Pontiac G6 around the 400 block of Old Spanish Trail.
A resident in the area, Buddy Rumble, Jr., testified that he was awake caretaking for his father when he stepped onto his porch and heard the sound of gunshots. Soon after, he said he heard the “whoosh whoosh” of a fuel-set fire igniting and growing, followed the sight of smoke and the glow of a fire through the trees.
Uncertain exactly where the flames were coming from, Rumble testified he jumped in his pickup truck to head to the Scott Fire Station to warn firefighters. He passed a fire truck while on his way to the station and doubled back to give a report to first responders about what he saw and heard, he said.
Scott Fire Chief Chad Sonnier testified that he arrived first on the scene around 3 a.m. on June 21, 2016 and said he could see a female victim, later identified as Metz, in the partially reclined front passenger seat. Her hands were bound, and there was clothing over her eyes as a blindfold. The woman’s body and the interior of the car were already burning when he arrived, he said.
Sonnier searched for other potential victims and secured the scene while a volunteer firetruck and two firefighters arrived. The fire chief said he cautioned the men to use as little water as possible to preserve evidence and alerted police and an arson investigator.
Sonnier and others who took the stand reported a strong smell of ammonia inside the car. The fire chief said he instructed another firefighter to use a chemical sensor to test the air inside the vehicle and it returned a reading of 1,500 parts per million of ammonia present.
Lafayette Fire Department arson investigator Alton Trahan said he concluded the fire originated in the front passenger area and was intentionally set.
He collected debris from the floor of the driver and front passenger seats, but testing at the Acadiana Crime Lab returned no proof of an ignitable; Trahan noted the lack of a positive test doesn’t mean an ignitable wasn’t used, just that traces were not found on the sample collected.
Once the firefighters’ initial fire suppression and investigative work was complete, the investigation, including who committed the arson, was turned over to the Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office, the firemen said.
Dwayne Angelle, a retired LPSO crime scene investigator, testified that he collected evidence at the Old Spanish Trail crime scene, including the bindings over Metz’s eyes, two spent Tulammo .380 cartridge casings, a band aid found near the burnt vehicle and partially burnt business cards belonging to Metz.
Angelle also attended Metz’s autopsy and collected a bullet that was lodged in her right shoulder from the pathologist, he said.
The former crime scene investigator testified that in addition to the initial crime scene, he also processed a firearm, a firearm magazine, a cellphone and a Volkswagen Jetta as part of the case.
Two Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s office detectives, John Shea and Joey Graciana, testified about how they contributed to the investigation, which Shea said involved collaboration between eight or more detectives.
Shea first responded to the Disett Road scene, where a man’s body, later confirmed to be Hill, was found in a burning car after Carencro firefighters extinguished the flames, he said. Shea testified that he saw Hill’s body in the backseat on the driver’s side, leaned over with his head facing the passenger side door.
It was later confirmed the burned vehicle was a Nissan Altima, he said.
Shea testified he then moved to the Old Spanish Trail scene, where he was joined by Graciana. The detectives were able to trace the car’s VIN to a salvage yard and determine Metz had recently purchased the Pontiac G6. Both later that day participated in a search of Metz’s apartment, where Hill also lived or frequently stayed, they said.
Graciana said that he observed signs of damage to Metz’s front door.
The detective said he followed up on several initial leads, including ammonia sales at a nearby 24-hour Walmart, traffic camera footage and CrimeStoppers tips, that ultimately yielded little information or weren’t further investigated as other leads developed.
Shea testified that meanwhile Sylvester became a person of interest after a relative of Hill’s reported that Sylvester had posted a video of himself at a beach pouring out a beer on Hill’s Instagram within a day of the burned cars’ discovery.
The detective said two days after the bodies were discovered, a Lafayette police officer found a stolen white Volkswagen Jetta at Beaver Park. The car was outfitted with license plates from the burned Nissan Altima. Angelle, the crime scene investigator, said he processed the vehicle for fingerprints, DNA and other evidence, and found a Puma clothing tag with a fingerprint that was a match for Joseph Sylvester.
Shea said Sylvester was interviewed by detectives for the first time that day. Graciana said he was ordered to write a search warrant for a Dodge Ram truck belonging to Willis due to statements Sylvester made to other detectives during the interview.
Graciana testified that after Willis was in custody he was tasked with listening to jail calls for possible leads. He said during a call between Willis and a woman, he heard the defendant urgently tell the woman to go to a particular location in his home and dispose of what she found.
The detective said while executing a search warrant, he and other investigators found a firearm hidden in an Oreo box above the microwave and a cellphone, keys and other items in a bag stored below the microwave, as well as an ammonia bottle and gas can in the kitchen.
Willis’s defense attorneys, Sean Collins and Cody Brown, questioned throughout investigators’ handling of the case, including what evidence was and was not tested for potential DNA and fingerprint evidence and why certain leads initiated in the beginning of the case weren’t further pursued.
Editor's note: A previous version of this story said Joseph Sylvester pleaded guilty to aggravated battery. He pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary. The Acadiana Advocate regrets the error.
