Gary Plauché did not serve any time in prison. In August 1985, after pleading no contest to manslaughter for shooting Jeffrey Doucet, the man who kidnapped and sexually abused his 11-year-old son, Plauché received a seven-year sentence that was fully suspended, along with five years of probation and 300 hours of community service.
The Sentence He Received
District Court Judge Frank Saia handed down the sentence in August 1985. The seven years of prison time were suspended in full, meaning Plauché would remain free as long as he complied with the conditions of probation. Those conditions ran for five years and included 300 hours of community service.
Judge Saia could have imposed up to 21 years behind bars under the manslaughter statute. He explained his reasoning at sentencing: “In this case, if there is anything that is unusual, it is because both sides are victims. Both sides suffered.” He added that it was evident locking Plauché in jail would serve no purpose.
Why He Avoided Prison
A grand jury originally indicted Plauché on second-degree murder, a charge that carried a mandatory life sentence under Louisiana law. The case never went to trial. His attorneys negotiated a plea to the reduced charge of manslaughter, which capped his exposure at 21 years and opened the door to a suspended sentence.
The plea was no contest, meaning Plauché accepted the conviction without formally admitting guilt. His defense argued he had been in a temporarily psychotic state when he pulled the trigger, driven there by learning the full extent of what Doucet had done to his son. Psychological evaluations reportedly supported that account.
Judge Saia also weighed the risk Plauché posed going forward and concluded it was negligible. Plauché had no criminal history, and the circumstances that provoked the shooting were unlikely to recur. Judges have broad sentencing discretion in Louisiana manslaughter cases, and Saia used that discretion to impose the minimum practical consequence.
How He Completed His Sentence
Plauché satisfied the 300 hours of community service by painting and cutting grass at a local Catholic church and school. He complied with the terms of probation, and by the end of the five-year period he had met every obligation the court imposed. He never spent a night in prison for the killing.
He lived quietly in the years that followed. Gary Plauché died in 2014 at the age of 68 from complications of a stroke.
Why This Outcome Was Unusual
Killing someone on camera, in front of law enforcement officers, in a public airport, and walking away without a day of incarceration is not how manslaughter cases typically end. Several factors converged here. The nature of the underlying crime, the grooming and sexual abuse of a child, generated extraordinary public sympathy. The psychological defense reduced the legal characterization of what Plauché did from murder to manslaughter. And the sentencing judge exercised his discretion at the lightest end of what the statute allowed.
A different judge, a different jurisdiction, or a less sympathetic set of facts could have produced a very different result. Plauché’s case is remembered precisely because the sentence sat so far outside the norm. The answer to how much prison time he served remains a single word: none.