A Jefferson Parish judge on Wednesday (Oct. 9) sentenced Jerry Gelpi to life plus 40 years in prison for his conviction of brutally stabbing his neighbor Charles Davis to death in Old Jefferson and then obstructing justice by eliminating evidence tying him to the crime.
“Mr. Gelpi, you’re going where you deserve to be,” 24th Judicial District Court Judge Frank Brindisi told Gelpi in sending him to prison for the rest of his life.
A Jefferson Parish jury last week rejected Gelpi’s insanity defense and found him guilty as charged of the first-degree murder of Davis, 68. Gelpi and Davis lived in the same apartment building in the 400 block of Highway Drive in February 2021.
Click here to read about the trial.
Gelpi, 42, gained access to Davis’s apartment and attacked him in the bathroom, stabbing him at least 16 times. Gelpi initially took steps to hide his involvement, including cleaning blood from the kitchen floor and discarding his bloody clothing and the murder weapon.
But when Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office detectives gathered evidence tying him to the crime, Gelpi began feigning a mental defect to escape criminal liability. He later pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. He testified that he is the “son of God” and that Davis was “a demon” who needed to die.
“You accused this man of being a demon,” Judge Brindisi told Gelpi on Wednesday. “You were the only demon that day.”
The judge rejected defense motions to overturn the jury’s verdict and for a new trial. He additionally heard victim-impact testimony from four of Davis’s family members, including a daughter who’ll mark her birthday next week without well-wishes from her father.
“Knowing that I can never get that phone call again is heartbreaking,” she testified.
Davis’s sister told the court, “I will never get a chance to hug him to speak with him to tell him how much I love him … or just to hear him say, ‘Sis, you alright?’”
Judge Brindisi sentenced Gelpi to the mandatory life sentence in prison without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence. He additionally sentenced Gelpi to 40 years in prison for obstruction of justice, which is the maximum punishment for that offence. He ran the sentences consecutively. The judge also fined Gelpi $100,000.
Assistant District Attorneys Tommy Block and Lindsay Truhe prosecuted the case.