Talvis Keller was supposed to stand trial for murder on Monday, accused of killing Taj Laurent Sr., the Marrero father of Keller’s former girlfriend, after he tried to defuse an argument between the couple on Christmas night in 2023.
But Keller instead pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter. So it was Taj Laurent Sr.’s relatives who took the witness stand in a Jefferson Parish courtroom Monday morning to express their grief, anger and a love that sounded like forgiveness.
Taj Laurent Sr.’s daughter, Taj Jordan Laurent, did not make it through the first line of her written victim impact statement before she began bawling.
Her tearful sobs drowned out her statement, but she continued to read a letter to her father, never once looking over to her former boyfriend who sat a few feet away at the defense table…