District Attorney Billy Joe Harrington announced the court dispositions of 9 felony criminal cases that were charged in the district court. The cases involved felony charges of weapons possession, domestic violence, sex offender registration violations, burglary and probation violations.

Division “B” Judge Lala Sylvester was the presiding judge in the following cases:

Antoine Mitchell, 36, of Natchitoches, pleaded guilty to burglary. The guilty plea is the result of a 2017 arrest of Mitchell by the Natchitoches Multi-Jurisdictional Drug Task Force, who apprehended him as he was exiting a bedroom window of a residence. Mitchell was previously convicted of burglary in 2015 and also convicted of introducing illegal contraband into a penal institution in 2016. In the current case, Mitchell was sentenced to 12 years of incarceration.

Michael Rachal, 42, of Natchitoches, pleaded guilty to aggravated flight from a police officer. The guilty plea was the result of January incident in which Rachal attempted to elude police during a traffic stop by excessively speeding away, nearly hitting a police officer, putting other motorists in danger, and crashing his vehicle into a ditch. Rachal was sentenced to two years of incarceration.

Dojourneyean Smith, 24, of Campti, was on supervised probation for a 2020 guilty plea of aggravated assault with a firearm in which he was sentenced to a five-year suspended prison sentence. In June, Smith was arrested for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. As a result of the arrest, a probation revocation hearing was conducted and Smith’s probation was revoked, and he was ordered to immediately serve the original 5 year prison sentence. The current charge of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon is pending.

Rahkeem Armstrong, 29, of Natchitoches, pleaded guilty to failure to register as a sex offender. Armstrong having been previously convicted of a felony sex offense failed to Properly report to law enforcement. Armstrong was sentenced to two years of incarceration.