DANIEL TYLER GOODEN

PLAQUEMINE – Daniel Blank, on trial for the murder of Barbara Bourgeois, changed his plea to guilty Tuesday after watching his taped confession of the murder. Blank was accused of killing Bourgeois, 58, of Paulina, March 19, 1997. His confession came after the prosecution had just questioned St. John Sheriff’s Detective Todd Hymel, who had been witness to the confession. Before the defense cross examined Hymel they asked for a five-minute recess, according to Thomas Kliebert, St. James Parish assistant district attorney. The confession tape showed Blank describing how he had broke in through a back window in Bourgeois’s home. He told that she attempted to hit him with a vacuum cleaner, which Blank took and beat her with. Bourgeois tried to defend herself with a knife, but Blank took the knife as well and used it to stab her with, he said on the tape. Hymel testified that many of the crime scene details and photographs closely matched the details in Blank’s confession. “The defense asked for a five-minute recess and came back an hour later to ask for a plea bargain,” said Kliebert. The bargain was denied, and another hour later the defense returned and Blank changed his plea. Blank was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Bourgeois. He’s already been sentenced to death in two trials for the murders of Gonzales resident Lillian Phillipe, 71, on April 9, 1997, and LaPlace resident Joan Brock, 55, on May 15, 1997. Though Bourgeois’ murder occurred in Paulina in St. James Parish, the trial had been moved from Iberville Parish due to the high amount of publicity concerning the killing spree. Blank still awaits trial for the murders of Victor Rossi, 41, of St. Amant and Sam and Louella Arcuri, 76 and 69, of LaPlace.