A man who killed a Covington priest and his caretaker shortly after being released from prison will spend the rest of his natural life on death row. 49-year-old Antonio Tyson had pleaded guilty to first degree murder in the 2022 killings of Fr. Otis Young and Ruth Prats. St. Tammany Parish District Attorney Collin Sims says he and the victims’ families had originally sought the death penalty; however, late disclosures regarding Tyson’s low IQ forced a change of direction.
Left to right: Fr. OTIS YOUNG, RUTH PRATS (photos courtesy of Facebook)
“Some disclosures by the defense, far later than they should have been, changed the course. In our analysis, and our meetings with the family, both us and the family kind of came to the same conclusion on how to resolve the case,” Sims explained.
So Sims secured a plea deal which calls for Tyson to serve his life prison sentence on death row. He says it’s essentially a death sentence without the execution.
“There’s a far difference in serving your time on death row than just other lifers, as far as your confinement status. And we started talking about it and came up with the idea like, ‘Why can’t we negotiate this like anything else?’ And so we did,” Sims said.
Sims says what makes this case all the more tragic is that just months before killing Young and Prats, Tyson had been released from the Rayburn Correctional Facility after serving 30 years of a 40-year sentence for forcible rape, armed robbery and burglary.
“He got out very early, on good time, after having been convicted of a previous rape case. He should have been confined with hundreds of violations in the Department of Corrections,” Sims noted.
As part of his plea deal, Tyson has agreed to waive all rights to pursue sentence reductions, judicial reviews or release mechanisms.
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