Detectives to bring suspected Louisiana killers home

Friday, June 26, 1998 | 3:20 a.m.

Gary "Duck" Harrall, 21, has told authorities that he will agree to be extradited when he makes his first court appearance Monday, Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Jerry Larpenter said Friday.

It is not clear whether, Travis "Sugar" Johnson, 18, will try to resist being brought back to Louisiana to face first-degree murder charges, Larpenter said.

The men, both of Thibodaux, are wanted in the killings of Bourbon Street pianist Johnnie Bachemin, 74, and Houma nightclub owner Curtis Moon, 47.

Larpenter said the evidence against the two is overwhelming, but that detectives still hope to learn more about the crimes by interviewing Harrall and Johnson over the weekend.

The suspects' naivete apparently led them down a well-traveled escape route, police said. Instead of hiding, the pair fled to Hollywood and Las Vegas where they were spotted and reported to police.

Harrall and Johnson apparently paid for the trip with proceeds from the two crimes in Louisiana, police said. No crimes in California have been linked to them.

They were seen last weekend in a pawn shop not far from Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif. At Knott's Berry Farm, another Anaheim amusement park, they caused a commotion when they tried to slip in without paying, police said.

Even though their photos were shown on television and in newspapers in Southern California, they kept using their real names, police said.

On Thursday, they took a Greyhound bus to Las Vegas, with FBI agents following, police said. In Henderson, Nev., the bus made a regular stop and agents went aboard and arrested them.

The men were asleep. They are being held at the Clark County detention center.

Moon was found May 31 stabbed and beaten to death at his home. Bachemin was found June 10 at home near the French Quarter, dead of similar wounds.

Police and sheriff's deputies in Orleans, Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes said they linked Harrall and Johnson to the killings after the pair used Bachemin's credit cards in a Houma mall and burned his car in a sugar cane field near Thibodaux.

Three others were booked in Moon's murder; one of those three and two others were booked with helping to burn the car.