It seems that no matter where we come from, no matter which road of life we find ourselves on, crime is something that we cannot avoid. Whether it’s the petty crimes we commit in our teenage years in order to test our own limits, or the violent, often reprehensible ones that we see on the news every day.
People have many reasons for committing crimes. Violent crime is often the result of a surge of emotion prompted by something like anger, or jealousy, or revenge. Odd as it may seem, some crimes are the result of unexpectedly altruistic intentions. Yet no matter how noble the reasoning, a crime is still a crime; but that doesn’t mean it isn’t justified.
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Falling in Love
Jace Crehan met Brittany Monk in early 2014. Jace, a volunteer firefighter, was an older boy and Brittany was barely 16. Nevertheless, the two soon began to cultivate a relationship together. It was an immediate attraction, an innate and powerful connection they hadn’t felt with anyone else in their young lives.
Rough Childhood
They flirted over social media, spoke to one another daily, and in time, started dating in earnest. The young lovers shared stories about their lives. They spoke about their home lives and the struggles that they faced because of their parents, though Brittany was never overt about the details. Jace knew one thing, whatever happened must have been rough.
Opening Up
Eventually, Brittany felt comfortable enough to open up to her new boyfriend. She explained how her parents were almost always at the bar. On the rare occasion that they were home, they were drunk and surely beyond comprehension. As if that weren’t enough, her drunk parents would also invite dozens of strange drunk men over to party with them. Because of this, Brittany never felt safe.
Living Situation
By the time she’d met Jace, Brittany was living with her mother in Walker, though she only did begrudgingly and because she had no choice. A few years earlier, when she was a minor, Brittany’s mother had moved out of her father’s trailer, leaving her and her younger sister in the care of their father.
Hidden Memories
Though the memories were hazy, Brittany remembered what life was like before she had hit her teens. The drunken parties, her blacked out mother, and her abusive, rapist of a father. There were times when she would wake in the night, crying at the memory of being forcibly sedated and raped by her alcoholic father, Robert Noce.
Nightmares
The nightmares had followed her into high school but seemed to subside when she was with Jace. It got to the point where Brittany couldn’t get through the night without him sleeping next to her. It got to the point where he had to be there all the time. Jace wondered why nothing had ever been done to curb Noce’s abuse.
Mild Sentence
As it happened, something would eventually be done, though it had come to mean very little in the end. Noce had been arrested and pleaded no contest to carnal knowledge of a juvenile a few years prior to Jace and Brittany’s meeting. Unfortunately, the terms of that plea meant that he could essentially plead guilty but be able to maintain his innocence.
How Could They?
Because of the plea deal, Noce served no jail time at all. Instead, he was sentenced to five years active supervised probation. Despite months of court proceedings, Noce had gotten away with a slap on the wrist. Brittany was still plagued by her memories of the abuse. After the plea deal, the nightmares increased, eventually becoming full-on night terrors.
Night Terrors
Brittany was suffering increasingly violent night terrors. She worried that Noce would seek revenge on her or Jace, or seek to punish her sister or her mother. Though he kept his feelings to himself, Jace worried about the same thing. Jace decided that something had to be done. He had to keep them all safe.
A Body
Robert Noce disappeared a few weeks later. Eventually, police searched his trailer in Zachary, Louisiana and discovered where he had been hiding. Or rather, where someone had hidden him. It was evident from even a cursory examination that someone had stabbed him, then placed his dead body in a plastic bin outside the trailer. But had that person been Jace Crehan?
Suspected Parties
All signs pointed to Jace and, to a lesser extent, Brittany. After all, they had both made it abundantly clear that they weren’t happy with Noce’s paltry sentence. Before they could point fingers, however, the police had to make sure all their ducks were in a row. Forensic experts examined the body and discovered a rather telling piece of evidence.
DNA Links
Brittany Monk’s DNA was found on the plastic drum that had housed Noce’s corpse. Considering that the girl hadn’t lived in the trailer for many years, it made sense that she had at least something to do with the murder. Both she and Jace were placed under arrest and taken into custody. Before any lawyer could be called, however, Jace made a startling confession.
She’s Innocent
Once he was in custody, Jace Crehan openly admitted that he was the only one responsible for the crime. He even wrote as much in a letter, according to the Advocate, following the arrest. “I’ll say this, I Jace Crehan, killed Robert Noce and he admitted in his final moments his rape against Brittany,” he said. And that wasn’t all he had to say.
Her Protector
“This love is beyond what one would feel for their wife or child or family member,” Jace continued in his letters. “It was something that overcame me. I couldn’t control this enormous amount of obligation. I felt indebted to her. I was more than just her boyfriend, fiance, lover. I was her guardian, her protector, her hope.”
Missing Details
According to Jace, he and Brittany had gone to Noce’s trailer on the day it occurred to confront him. They allegedly entered the trailer without Noce’s permission to do so. When they got there, the argument devolved and Noce reached out angrily to attack his daughter. Jace added that he’s not a violent person and that it was never his intention to do what he did.
Making Comparisons
Jace’s actions are not unusual, even when compared to other incidents in Louisiana. In 1984, Gary Plauche avoided prison time even after he killed his son’s accused molester, Karate teacher Jeff Doucet. Unlike this muddled mystery, Doucet’s murder had actually been caught on tape and while he was in police custody.
Disguised
Doucet had been found in a California hotel room with Gary Plauche’s missing 11-year-old son. He was on his way back to Louisiana when Plauche showed up in disguise at the Baton Rouge Metro Airport. Despite the police presence, Plauche’s single gunshot struck true, completing his revenge.
Vigilantism
Plauche, like Noce, pleaded no contest to manslaughter and was ultimately sentenced to five years probation. He was also given hundreds of hours in community service but served no prison time. It seemed the State was perfectly fine with the idea of vigilantism when the culprit deserved death. Only, would the same hold true for Jace Crehan?
The Sentencing
The answer, unfortunately for Jace, was no. He wouldn’t see the mercy that Plauche saw. This was probably because Jace was simply a boyfriend to Brittany, not a blood relative as in the case of Plauche. On January 19, 2018, Jace was sentenced to life in prison for Noce’s murder. But what about Brittany Monk?
Her Too
Brittany Monk had already served time, which would count toward her sentence. But even so, she would still be sentenced to 35 years in prison for her involvement.
