GRANT PARISH, La. (KALB) - Grant Parish Sheriff Steven McCain detailed the events leading to the arrest of a woman accused in the death of former Rapides Parish Sheriff William Earl Hilton.
McCain said his deputies had a warrant to search the home of Ladonna Delrie in Pollock on Monday, March 23, who was taken into custody later that day in Alexandria.
The sheriff said the sequence of events began Sunday, March 22, when Delrie called his office.
“Our office got a phone call from Delrie, and she was asking questions about the federal prison,” McCain said. “A deputy went out and responded to her house and answered her questions.”
Then, on March 23, McCain said Grant Parish deputies responded to a call from Delrie’s brother.
“He had just gotten home and discovered that his house had been damaged,” McCain said. “He looked at his surveillance camera and realized that it was his sister that had done this.”
McCain said that within minutes of that call, he received a call from the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office’s chief deputy.
“He said Sheriff Hilton has been run over, and we’ve got a license plate, and the license plate comes back to an address in Grant Parish,” McCain said.
The sheriff said deputies then went to Delrie’s home in Pollock. While they were there, Delrie was leading other law enforcement officers on a high-speed chase that ended in Alexandria.
McCain shares emotional reaction to Hilton’s passing
Sheriff McCain became emotional when talking about the death of his longtime friend.
“He loved people, he loved helping people. He truly, truly loved helping people. He was a great neighbor and certainly a great asset for me to call and ask questions to or to lean on for advice,” McCain shared. “He was a legend. He was a legend in Louisiana. He was a legend in Louisiana government. But the reason that he was a legend is because he loved people so much. He wanted to know you. He wanted to get to know you. He wanted to know how he could help. He did that time and time and time and again for me and Grant Parish, for the people that he didn’t work for, the community that he didn’t have to help.”
“My message to his family would be thank you for sharing him with the rest of us.”
Grant Parish Sheriff Steven McCain