St. Tammany News

Corrections officer killed in accident; Mississippi man charged

Kerry Snaples, 22, a corrections officer with the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office, was killed at 4:23 a.m. Sunday morning on U. S. Highway 190 near Redwood Drive in Covington.

Deputy Kerry Snaples

Snaples, just shy of his two-year anniversary with the Sheriff's Office (he started March 5, 2006), had gotten off work early because he had overtime hours. He was on his way home to Ponchatoula and was on his private motorcycle, a 2000 Honda.

When Covington Police arrived at the scene, a 1996 Chevy S-10 pickup truck was in the westbound ditch on U. S. 190. Lt. Jack West, spokesperson for the CPD, said the truck was stopped on U. S. 190 with no working taillights, and the deputy ran into it. West said the vehicle was out of gas, and blood on the seat indicated the driver, James E. Delancey, Jr., suffered minor cuts in the accident.

Covington Fire Rescue and Acadian Ambulance transported Snaples and Delancey to St. Tammany Parish Hospital, where Snaples was pronounced dead.

West said Delancey, 37, of Gulfport, Miss., is believed to have been intoxicated, and Delancey himself said he was taking hydrocodone, a prescription narcotic.

West reported that when first approached, the suspect said he didn't know why they were hassling him - he said he was in his own driveway. As time went on, Delancey's statements as to what happened kept changing, said West.

Relatives made him leave his two children with them because he was intoxicated, West added.

Delancey was arrested and charged with first offense DWI, driving with a suspended license and vehicular homicide. It is not known why his license is currently under suspension.

Delancey was transferred to another jail for his own safety, West said. Covington Police obtained a search warrant for Delancey's body so they can take blood and hair samples, West said on Tuesday.

Snaples is the third St. Tammany Parish deputy to die in a traffic accident in less than a year. In June 2007 Deputy Hilery Mayo was killed in an accident when his patrol car ran off the road a hit a tree while Mayo and his partner were answering what turned out to be a false report. While in the procession of Mayo's funeral, Cpl. Linden "Beau" Raimer was killed when a tree fell on his patrol car during a severe thunderstorm. His fianc/, Deputy Marylin "Mary" Mayo, no relation to Hilery Mayo, was in the car and was critically injured, although she recovered and returned to work in October 2007.