BATON ROUGE - An East Baton Rouge Parish District Judge declared a mistrial Wednesday in the trial of a man accused of beating and raping a woman in her Baton Rouge home, East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore confirmed.

David Blake Coutee was arrested in Livingston Parish and was accused of first-degree rape, aggravated second-degree battery, false imprisonment, aggravated damage to property and aggravated assault in East Baton Rouge Parish. 

Arrest documents said Coutee came to the victim's home in June 2024 and thought another man was in her home. He then became violent after she denied that someone was in the house, the warrant says. Police said he then dragged the woman through her home by her hair, forced her to strip naked and repeatedly beat and raped her in her attic.

Court documents showed the defense arguing that paperwork from Livingston Parish potentially relevant to Coutee's defense was not discovered until Tuesday night.

Coutee faces another rape trial in Livingston Parish. DA Moore also confirmed that Coutee will stay imprisoned even with the mistrial.