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MONROE, La. (AP) — A Louisiana man who had nails and screws thrown onto his driveway says it’s not the first time the suspect accused of doing it tossed debris into a road.

The Monroe News Star reported Tuesday that 60-year-old Prentice Lamar Tedeton Jr. was booked at Ouachita Correctional Center this week on three counts of stalking and four counts of criminal mischief.

A neighbor told Ouachita Parish deputies it wasn’t the first time he and Tedeton had argued. The neighbor accused Tedeton of putting hazardous debris into a road in 2018 and later showing up at his workplace to accuse him of stealing an air hose.

An arrest report says video shows a car tracked to Tedeton’s home driving back and forth in the area that day. He denies the accusations.

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Information from: The News-Star, http://www.thenewsstar.com

MONROE, La. (AP) — A Louisiana judge has set a bond for a man facing a murder charge in the stabbing death of a Taiwanese woman.

Quinton Tellis is the same man who was tried twice for murder but never convicted in the Mississippi burning death of 19-year-old Jessica Chambers.

The Monroe News Star reported Monday that Tellis was initially held without bond on a second-degree murder charge in the 2015 stabbing of Ming-Chen Hsiao. Tellis pleaded guilty in 2016 to unauthorized use of her debit card, but has pleaded not guilty to murder.

The newspaper said the judge set his bond at $300,000 on Oct. 23, and Tellis remains in Ouachita Parish custody.

Tellis was tried in Mississippi in 2017 and 2018 on capital murder charges in Chambers’ slaying. Both juries deadlocked.

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Information from: The News-Star, http://www.thenewsstar.com

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Owners of a New Orleans hotel that partly collapsed during construction said Tuesday they are planning to implode the remaining floors.

City officials said the implosion will take place in about nine weeks.

“We cannot find anyone to say that it’s safe to destroy it in any other manner,” Fire Chief Tim McConnell told reporters. He said contracts could be in place as early as next week.

According to a news release from 1030 Canal Development LLC, multiple engineers have said implosion is the safest way to demolish the project. Parts of its upper stories collapsed Oct. 12 , killing three workers.

The cleanup after the implosion will take about three more months, McConnell said.

“The City of New Orleans will remain in control of this throughout the process,” McConnell said. “The contractors are required to file for permits that require our approval every step of the way.”

The nine-week timeline puts the implosion at about the time the College Football Championship is being hosted in New Orleans on Jan. 13.

Meanwhile, McConnell said the city’s No. 1 priority remains victim recovery.

“We will have to do a recovery after it comes down,” he said, adding that they’ve been in close contact with the family of the two victims’ whose bodies are still within the unstable wreckage.

The company’s statement said it has hired contractors Kolb Grading LLC and its affiliate Dem/Tech and is working with the city and other agencies to finish the demolition plan. It says consultants will do seismic monitoring of nearby businesses and neighborhoods.

McConnell said the city is working with the company on a plan to stabilize the crane still leaning against the collapsed site and to set up a protected walkway so the adjacent Saenger Theatre can reopen in early December.

The cause of the collapse remains unknown. The Occupational Health and Safety Administration is investigating and, McConnell said, evidence gathering will begin after the building’s remains are down.

Lawsuits are already being filed on behalf of some of the more than 20 people injured against the project’s owners and contractors.

NATCHITOCHES, La. (AP) — Prosecutors still are debating on whether to pursue the death penalty against a woman accused of burning her girlfriend’s baby to death, at the girlfriend’s request.

The Alexandria Daily Town Talk reports prosecutors debated the move Tuesday at hearing for 27-year-old Felicia Marie-Nicole Smith. Smith has been indicted on a charge of first-degree murder in the death of 6-month-old Levi Cole Ellerbe, whose mother now faces the death penalty on the same charge.

Prosecutors say Hanna Nicole Barker asked Smith to kill Levi and then waited a few hours before calling 911 to report that her son had been kidnapped. Smith is accused of dumping Levi in a ditch, coating him in gasoline and setting him ablaze. Levi was found with severe burns covering 90% of his body and later died.

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Information from: Alexandria Daily Town Talk, http://www.thetowntalk.com

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The Louisiana secretary of state’s appearance at President Donald Trump’s rally is raising questions about whether he’s run afoul of state law barring the chief elections official from most political activity.

Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin appeared last week at Trump’s Monroe rally for Republican gubernatorial candidate Eddie Rispone. Ardoin, a Republican, is running against Democrat Gwen Collins-Greenup in Saturday’s runoff election.

Under Louisiana law, a secretary of state can participate in political activity related to his own campaign, but not to support other candidates.

Ardoin spoke at the rally, declaring Louisiana “will win with Donald Trump.” In a video posted to Ardoin’s Facebook page, he asked the crowd to chant who it supported for president and governor, without directly saying the responses of Trump and Rispone himself.

Attorney Franz Borghardt tells WAFB-TV that Ardoin’s appearance is troubling.

“If you don’t believe he is breaking the law, he’s certainly tapdancing on the line,” Borghardt said. He added: “He is campaigning for the president, which falls into the letter of the statute. He is arguably campaigning for the governor, although that’s not as strong of a case.”

Ardoin’s political adviser Lionel Rainey dismissed suggestions the secretary of state violated the law.

“Secretary Ardoin attended the event with President Trump to accept the president’s endorsement for his reelection as secretary of state and to promote his own candidacy as permitted in (the statute),” Rainey said in a statement. “This is a non-issue.”

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Information from: WAFB-TV, http://wafb.com