Caddo-convicted Angola death row inmate awaits sanity ruling | News

A death row inmate convicted in Caddo Parish who, according to court documents, told a girlfriend he “didn’t go in to kill nobody,” now awaits a determination whether he will, more than 30 years later, be eligible for execution.

Louisiana State Penitentiary inmate Michael Cooks’ sanity is under review by a court-appointed commission. Caddo District Judge John Mosley Jr. appointed a replacement in May to fill the spot of a deceased member of the three-person group he originally appointed in October of 2025. No date for a hearing to review the commission’s findings has been announced. 

Cooks was convicted on Nov. 7, 1996, for the Jan. 20, 1995, murder of Joe Frazier in the Lakeside area of Shreveport. Cooks was sentenced Jan. 17, 1997, to death, and the Louisiana Supreme Court affirmed his sentence in September 1998. 

Louisiana Revised Statute 15:567.1 states that no person may be executed who “presently lacks the competence to understand that he is to be executed and the reason he is to suffer that penalty.”

Now, with Gov. Jeff Landry calling for a resolution to death penalty cases and Attorney General Liz Murrill pursuing such, there has been a flurry of activity regarding the 14 death penalty convictions for men from Caddo and Bossier parishes.

Attorneys met on May 20 at the Caddo Parish Courthouse in Shreveport for the hearing to appoint the replacement examiner. He will help determine “whether or not the defendant is intellectually disabled and therefore eligible or ineligible for execution,” as stated in court by Alexandra Porubsky, an assistant district attorney in Caddo Parish.

During the penalty phase of the 1996 trial, psychologist Dr. Mark Vigen testified Cooks was “moderately mentally retarded.” Reports showed his IQ was 78 and he read at a fifth-grade level.

After no activity in the public case file for 7 1/2 years, filings resumed in August of 2024. They included a motion to vacate the death sentence due to intellectual disability, and 10 days later, the state filed to have a commission determine if his mental ability would preclude him from being executed.

Michael Cooks convicted in drug robbery case

According to court documents, the crime was committed during a robbery targeting drugs. It occurred at a home in the 3500 block of Darien Street, two blocks east and three blocks south of the intersection of Jewella Avenue and Lakeshore Drive.

Two other men in the home that night who were shot five times each but survived — Ronald Ford and Carlos Bryant — testified that Cooks first knocked on the front door of the house. Bryant told him to go to the back door, and when Cooks entered there, he carried a .45 automatic weapon and was accompanied by five other armed men, according to court documents.

One of those other men, Eric Williams, testified at Cooks’ trial that the assailants spread through the residence with the victims. They eventually left with drugs and money.

Cooks was in a room with Frazier, and when the men fled the home through that room, Frazier was lying on his stomach, according to Williams’ testimony. He further said that, after he ran out of the house, he heard Cooks yell, “Kill that b***h.”

Paramedics responding to the scene found Frazier dead, and the medical examiner testified the victim had been shot 14 times, with 11 entry wounds suggesting he had been flat on his stomach when those were fired. Bullets recovered — including four lodged in his body — came from at least three types of guns.

Witnesses testified that Cooks, identified by his Rollin’ 60s gang name “Mad Monsta Crip” in testimony, had been in charge and ordered Frazier’s killing. Prosecutors argued that and the connected armed robbery made him deserving of the death penalty. 

A letter allegedly sent by Cooks from jail to a girlfriend said that “we got in the house, and we made them lay down.” He said he was “looking for dope” when he heard shooting and that, “We left them for dead. We did not look for them to make it, but two of them did.” He added he “didn’t go in to kill nobody.”

A death warrant for Cooks was signed on two occasions in 1999, but was stayed by the Louisiana Supreme Court as appeals were allowed to continue.

Three other defendants were also tried and convicted:

• Alvin Bratton was convicted of second-degree murder on July 8, 1998, and the Louisiana Second Circuit Court of Appeal affirmed the verdict on Jan. 3, 2000;

• Williams entered a plea of guilty to a charge of armed robbery and was sentenced on July 21, 1997, to six years in prison;

• Griffin also entered a guilty plea and was sentenced on Jan. 19, 1999, to 15 years.