Brandon Scott Lavergne Changes Plea To Guilty In Shunick/Pate Case – UPDATE

As expected, in today's evidentiary hearing, Brandon Scott Lavergne changed his plea from "Not Guilty" to "Guilty" in the murder case of Mickey Shunick and Lisa Pate.

He pleads guilty to both murders in exchange for life in prison.

Lavergne was made to show authorities where Shunick's body was buried and was made to recreate his actions on May 19th.

From our sister station KPEL ;

The assistant district attorney for the 15th judicial district requested an evidentiary hearing today dealing with the case of Brandon Scott Lavergne.  He has pleaded guilty.

Lavergne walked into the Lafayette Parish District Courthouse this morning for the hearing as reporters shouted questions at him.  Lavergne remained silent while making his way into the courthouse.  What will happen in court today will be revealed later as the hearing is still underway.

This week KPEL reported on the case of missing teenager from Texas and whether or not their is a connection between her case and Brandon Scott Lavergne.  The girl, 16-year-old Ali Lowitzer has been missing since April of 2010.  Mac Sanford, the private investigator hired by Lowitzer’s family, says that he got tips from people saying they say a white truck like Lavergne’s at the time the girl was last ween.

In addition, Sanford says Lowitzer disappeared in a county very near to where Brandon Scoot Lavergne’s truck was found burned by police.

“We had two tips come in saying two separate times, both of them saying a white domestic Chevy truck with a male driver trying to lure in Ali on the side of the street where she went missing,” Sanford says.

Those tips also included pieces of a license plate number. Sanford says those numbers very closely matched those of the plate on the white truck Lavergne owned at the time.

“So from there everything just kind of started kind of falling into place,” Sanford says. “I feel really confident that we have a huge link here.”

According to KATC.com, the details of the night of May 19th say Lavergne followed Shunick down St. Landry Street in his truck. He intentionally hit her bike and persuaded her into his vehicle. She was able to mace him, grab his knife, and stab him several times, giving him what were described as "life-threatening cuts." He grabbed the knife back and stabbed Shunick four times until she fell over. At this point, Lavergne thought she was dead. However, when Lavergne brought Shunick to a secluded cane field in Acadia Parish, she jumped up and regained control of knife. Shunick stabbed him in the chest. That's when Lavergne grabbed a semi-automatic handgun and shot Shunick in the head, killing her instantly.