Derice Bailey: Metairie mother of 2 shot dead inside her kitchen; ex-partner sentenced

Derice Bailey, 35, was found dead on her kitchen floor in Metairie, Louisiana on 12/2/16 as deputies arrived at her home after responding to a report about a man with a gun.  Her ex-partner was arrested.

Update: Thirty-nine-year-old Ronald Mitchell will spend the rest of his life locked up after prosecutors in Louisiana's Jefferson Parish successfully argued that he gunned down Derice Bailey during a confrontation in December 2016.

Mitchell was found guilty of second-degree murder and of being a felon in possession of a weapon, according to the Jefferson Parish DA's Office.

Some of the testimony brought out in the case included the fact that Bailey died while trying to shield her two children from Mitchell. After the victim was shot, her 9-year-old son went into a violent rage, lunging for a gun to avenge his mother's death. 

Mitchell's sobbing, 9-year-old son screamed, "You killed my mom. I hate you," the boy screamed, before being restrained by responding deputies, according to the Times Picayune newspaper. The woman's 15-year-old daughter yelled, "Why, Daddy? Why'd you kill momma?"

During the trial, Bailey's daughter wrote a letter to the court, saying "my mother was a wonderful woman. If you met her you would have thought the same thing."

May her family finally have peace.

Original story: Derice Bailey, 35, of Metairie, Louisiana, loved life and those who knew her. The mother of two children, a girl and boy, was known for making her friends laugh and having a loving spirit.

Now, it is her two kids that friends and family are thinking about as they try to come to grips with the shocking death of Bailey.

What makes her slaying even more difficult for responding officers is that law officers were just outside her home and could have prevented the murder if they had arrived a moment sooner.

According to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, officers descended upon her home when they received a call about a man with a gun. When they arrived, they heard several gunshots coming from inside the home.

Soon, Ronald Mitchell, the 39-year-old former partner of Bailey, walked out and surrendered to authorities. He handed over a .38-caliber pistol.

When they went inside, deputies found Bailey deceased on her kitchen floor. She had been shot multiple times.

Her two children were inside the home.

Bailey's friend Ilka Ricks said that she was known for being light-hearted. “She had a beautiful personality. She always had a smile, laughter and jokes,” Ricks told the Advocate newspaper.

Ricks said that she and Bailey were longtime friends, but she changed once Mitchell came into the picture. “He dimmed her light, putting this dark shade over her,” Ricks told the Advocate.

"She was a very sweet and kind woman," a woman who identified herself as a relative told the Times-Picayune newspaper.

Ricks said that Bailey and her children left Mitchell several months ago, but he found them and came back into her life. 

“He kept finding her, kept stalking her,” Ricks was quoted as saying. 

A candlelight vigil was held Sunday December 4, 2016 at 6 p.m. at in Metairie.

Photo credit: Matthew Hinton, The Advocate