New Orleans, Louisiana

From the New Orleans Times-Picayune of January 20, 2007

Musician acquitted of shooting rival

Jury agrees with his self-defense claim

An Orleans Parish jury on Friday acquitted a musician charged with the attempted murder of a rival jazz band member during a street brawl and shootout in 2003.

The jury accepted the self-defense claim of Lawrence Ketchens, 43, a tuba player with Doreen's Jazz New Orleans band, who shot Rebirth Brass Band drummer Derrick Tabb, 31, on a 7th Ward street during a clash that began earlier that day at a funeral.

Ketchens testified at criminal district court that he was merely protecting himself and his wife, Doreen Ketchens, whom Tabb had beat to the ground with an umbrella during the skirmish.

The fight on May 20, 2003, quickly turned into gunplay. Ketchens pulled his .25-caliber Raven handgun from his pocket while a friend of Tabb's, Walter Kimble, raced to a truck to find a .40-caliber gun -- a weapon that is standard issue for New Orleans police officers.

Kimble later told police that he blasted at Ketchens in defense of Tabb. Ketchens rolled underneath a parked pickup truck to escape the gunfire and quickly drove off in his van.

When the dust settled, both sides were bloody from injuries. Ketchens suffered a gunshot wound to the thigh and Tabb had two .25-caliber wounds in his upper shoulder. But police arrested only Ketchens for attempted murder of Tabb and his mother, Vana Acker, 51, who was also caught up in the violence. Kimble was never charged.

At this week's three-day trial before Judge Darryl Derbigny, Ketchens said he feared for his wife's life as Tabb threw his large frame at her on the neutral ground.

"You gotta do what you gotta do," defense attorney Thomas Calogero said during his closing argument. "Luckily, he had a small-caliber weapon, little bitty bullets. He's not going to murder anyone with that little pea shooter. "

Calogero said Tabb was "a 6-foot-4, 250-pound man who viciously" attacked Doreen Ketchens before her husband stepped to her defense.

"He ought to thank Lawrence Ketchens for showing restraint," Calogero said of Tabb. "Sure, it got out of hand. Derrick Tabb got out of hand and beat a woman to the ground."

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