BATON ROUGE - One former juror in the 1997 trial of a man who killed two employees in a Baton Rouge restaurant is calling for the original sentencing to be upheld.

Nearly thirty years ago, on Nov. 19, 1995, Todd Wessinger went inside Calendar's restaurant on Perkins Road to rob the store. He had previously worked there as a dishwasher. He shot and killed employees Stephanie Guzzardo and David Breakwell. Wessinger also injured Erik Armentor and tried to shoot Alvin Ricks, but the gun jammed.

"He started pointing a gun at me and the gun got jammed up and I started running. It was horrifying, all I heard was gunshots," employee Alvin Ricks told reporters in 1995.

Then EBR District Attorney Doug Moreau sought capital punishment in the case.

"It is the manner in which the crime occurred, it was the intent that was demonstrated by the evidence, that makes it clearly a death penalty case," Moreau said on the case.

According to previous reporting, just before 9 p.m. on June 25, 1997, the jury handed down the sentence, the death penalty for Wessinger.

"We are pleased with the verdict, and we are very pleased with the district attorney's office. Mr. John Sinquefield is everything we heard he was, and his two detectives were unbelievable," Wayne Guzzardo, the father of Stephanie Guzzardo, said to reporters after hearing the sentence.

"I'd like to thank the jury for their verdict. it took a lot of courage. I really appreciate it took a lot of courage to return I think the right verdict," Prosecutor John Sinquefield said at the time.

Davis Hotard, a member of the 1997 jury, agrees.

"Stephanie Guzzardo and David Breakwell. I remember those names 30 years later because of what happened to them. I mean, I remember those names 30 years later, those two people were murdered," he said.

Hotard called the case "cut and dry."

"I mean, there were witnesses who survived the shootings, so there's no question of his guilt in pulling the trigger," Hotard said.

Last week, U.S. District Court Judge John DeGravelles signed an order sending the case back to the 19th Judicial District for a new death penalty trial. The same judge vacated Wessinger's death penalty ruling in 2022, concluding in the order, the original counsel failed to provide effective assistance.

"Whether he was abused physically by his parents, whether he was sexually abused, whatever. There are people who are sexually abused, they don't go kill four people. There's nothing they can say to me that would convince me he doesn't deserve the death penalty from what he did and from what I heard, knowing what he did... nothing," Hotard said.

Hotard said he remembered listening to the 911 call in court.

"She's begging for her life, please don't kill me, please don't kill me. It's on the tape and you hear the gunshot, you hear her take her last breaths. It's undeniable what he did," he said.

In a statement, EBR District Attorney Hillar Moore disagreed with the judge's decision, writing in part:

"The moral force of the evidence was overwhelming at the trial in this matter. This simply cannot be recreated 30 years after the commission of these crimes."

Hotard believes a new jury would deliver the same sentence.

"There is no doubt in this case, he is absolutely guilty of this, two murders, probably would have been four had things gone differently, had things gone his way, there would have been four dead people. Why 30 years later?"