Louisiana convicted murder, mistakenly released, captured

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A convicted murderer, who was mistakenly released from a north Louisiana jail in November, was re-arrested Wednesday morning.

Michael “Ma-Man” LeBlanc was convicted of second-degree murder in 2017 for the drug-related killing of 37-year-old Adoriji Wilson in 2014, The Advocate reported.

When the inmate was mistakenly released Nov. 30 from Riverbend Detention Center, which houses Madison Parish’s pretrial detainees, family member’s of Wilson said they feared for their safety.

Although LeBlanc, 41, was convicted five years ago for second-degree murder, he is still awaiting sentencing — which was delayed due to continuances, the COVID-19 pandemic and the death of his original defense attorney. When he finished serving time for an unrelated gun possession charge he was set free from the Riverbend Detention Center.

At the time officials pointed fingers at who was to blame. Ascension Parish District Attorney Ricky Babin, whose office is prosecuting LeBlanc, condemned state corrections officials for failing to heed a detainer to keep LeBlanc in law enforcement custody on his murder conviction.

Ascension Parish Sheriff Bobby Webre told The Advocate that he hoped LeBlanc’s capture in New Orleans Wednesday brings “some comfort to the victim’s family that they know this guy is back in custody.”