EDGARD — A local man is serving out his 180-day sentence in jail after being on the run for years, the St. John the Baptist Parish District Attorney’s Office said.

Devaliant Christopher Cole, of LaPlace, appeared before Judge Mary Hotard Becnel Sept. 29 and was found guilty of contempt for two child support cases he admitted to not paying and owing $155,732.56 in child support.

Assistant District Attorney Kim Laborde said there were two cases because Cole owed two mothers child support.

Laborde handles child support cases.

“Devaliant Cole is someone who has been on the radar for quite a while,” Laborde said.

According to Laborde, in Cole’s first case he was arrested on a bench warrant and found guilty of contempt May 12, 2003, for failing to pay child support, which was $15,736.82.

“They deferred sentencing for his first case because they were actively intercepting his wages to pay that,” Laborde said.

“He was actively working, and 50 percent of his wages were being garnished at that time. When the payments stopped, we filed a second contempt for May 4, 2006.”

Along with the bench warrant for Cole, the total amount of money he owed in child support was $16,633.82, Laborde said, adding while the warrants were pending the money kept adding each month.

Because Cole missed the contempt hearing May 4, 2006, a second bench warrant was issued and his money owed reached $38,911.72.

In March, the District Attorney’s office received a call from Federal Marshals saying Cole had been arrested in South Carolina.

After the case in South Carolina concluded, Cole was extradited back to St. John the Baptist Parish Sept. 5 and booked on two outstanding child support warrants.

There were two counts of contempt in his first case and one contempt count in his second case.

“By law, the maximum penalty is 90 days or a fine not to exceed $500,” Laborde said. “He was found three times in contempt which is 180 days or six months. His purge amount is $25,000 in order to get released early and begin on the track to paying again.

“If we would have never found him, the amount would still continue to run as long as the state was still working on the case.”

Because the bench warrants were out for so long, Laborde said, they protected the children from emancipating.

Emancipating is when a child turns 18 or graduated high school, technically when they become an adult. The bench warrant being active that length of time protected the mother and the children’s finical interests in both cases.

When Cole gets out of jail, he will still owe the money, and there will be a review day on Feb. 4, 2016.

“The money will not go away, unless it’s paid or it’s forgiven by the family it is owed to,” Laborde said.

“This is a unique case. It’s because we’ve been looking for him for so long. If he wouldn’t have done anything to catch the feds’ eye, we probably would have never found him. He worked cash jobs and had different vehicles. There was no bank account, and it was hard to track him down. I was wondering if we were ever going to find him. Children need to be supported by both parents, and child support isn’t just money you are handing over to the mother. It goes to helping paying the rent or putting gas in the vehicle or putting food on the table.”

— By Raquel Derganz Baker