Troy DeRosa, a Kenner native who was acquitted last year of three grisly execution-style killings in Metairie during a home invasion, has escaped another murder charge.
A judge Tuesday ordered DeRosa, 26, released from the second-degree murder charge in the April 2000 killing of Howard Delahoussaye, 68. Delahoussaye, a disabled horse trainer, was shot four times in his Ronson Drive home during what police said was a robbery or burglary attempt.
Kenner police booked DeRosa with first-degree murder on Sept. 21, hours after a Jefferson Parish jury acquitted him of the Nov. 23, 2003, killings in a Metairie condo in which four people were shot in the head. A fourth woman survived, and prosecutors declined to prosecute DeRosa on an attempted murder charge after a jury cleared him of the triple slaying, because the facts in both cases were the same.
After the Sept. 21 Kenner arrest, a magistrate found the evidence sufficient to hold DeRosa for second-degree murder. Tuesday’s action leaves DeRosa charged with aggravated burglary, for which he faces trial next month. He remains jailed in lieu of $500,000 bond.
“Troy DeRosa’s nightmare in the criminal justice system in Jefferson Parish is almost over,” his attorney, Jim Williams, said minutes after his client was released Tuesday from the $750,000 bond obligation on the Delahoussaye murder charge.
The charge was based on information three jailed inmates gave Kenner detectives. The inmates claimed DeRosa told them he went to Delahoussaye’s home to steal his prescription pain medication, according to a police probable cause affidavit. Delahoussaye had no legs and used a wheelchair, neighbors said at the time of the killing.
In speaking to the three inmates, “DeRosa provided details of the incident, which directly matched the crime scene,” Kenner police Detective Jesse Johnson wrote in the Sept. 21 affidavit.
By law, prosecutors had 120 days to get a grand jury indictment or file another charge. That deadline, set in Article 701 of the state’s code of criminal procedure, passed. Williams filed what’s called a 701 motion, which 24th Judicial District Judge Ross LaDart granted Tuesday.

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