Wedding fight leads to car crash and a murder charge

An argument that police say began between relatives at a church wedding and ended with a fatal traffic wreck has left a 75-year-old lawyer dead and an Alabama man facing a second-degree murder charge.
Chester Alpaugh, 34, of Vestavia Hills, Ala., was booked with second-degree murder in Tuesday's death of Robert Sarpy of New Orleans.
Sarpy was injured July 11 at Broad Place and Pine Street, while getting into his parked car, police said. Moments earlier, Alpaugh and a sibling were attending a wedding in a nearby church when Alpaugh became irate and an argument followed, according to the arrest warrant application.
The sibling left the church, got into his car and attempted to leave. Police and prosecutors say Alpaugh also got into his car and sped away, driving at a high rate of speed against traffic as he followed his sibling.
Alpaugh jumped the neutral ground, lost control of his car and struck Sarpy, according to police reports. Alpaugh's car then struck other parked cars. Sarpy reportedly also had attended the wedding. He was rushed to a hospital for surgery, according to a police report.
Alpaugh "showed complete disregard for public safety and operated the vehicle recklessly, due to (his) emotional state at the time of the incident," an NOPD officer wrote in an initial report.
Alpaugh was first charged with negligent injuring and reckless operation of a vehicle and was being prosecuted in New Orleans Municipal Court. After Sarpy died in a hospital on Tuesday, NOPD obtained a second-degree murder arrest warrant on Wednesday and rebooked Alpaugh.
Prosecutors dismissed the Municipal Court case on Wednesday, records show. Alpaugh's attorney sought to plead him guilty to misdemeanor charges in his absence last week, but Judge Desiree Charbonnet declined until she could review the result of a psychiatric evaluation, court records show.
NOPD homicide detective Theophilus Kent, who was assigned to the case Wednesday, wrote in the arrest warrant application that he "was requested" to book Alpaugh with second-degree murder. Kent did not elaborate on who asked him to select the murder charge.
Prosecutors would have to present the case to a grand jury in order to obtain a second-degree murder case against Alpaugh. If he is charged with that offense and convicted, he would spend the rest of his life in prison with no chance of probation, parole or suspended sentence.
Alpaugh made his initial appearance Thursday before retired Jefferson Parish Judge Walter Rothschild, who is serving an appointment at New Orleans Magistrate Court. Prosecutors asked for a $1 million bond, leading Alpaugh's public defender Donna Weidenhaft to balk.
She said her client has no criminal history, did not commit a murder and said it was a negligent homicide or "at best, manslaughter." She asked for a $150,000 bond.
"If anything, your honor, this case is very sad," Weidenhaft said. "Everyone in this case involves family members."

Rothschild set the bond at $150,000.