An early-morning police raid Thursday led to the arrest of a second accused Baton Rouge serial killer in a single year’s time.
The East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Department arrested Sean Vincent Gillis for the murder of three Baton Rouge-area women — Katherine Hall, 29, Johnnie Mae Williams, 45, and Donna Bennett Johnston, 43.
Officers arrested Gillis, 41, of 545 Burgin Street, around 1:20 a.m. as part of an investigation by the Homicide Task Force, made up of members of the EBR Sheriff’s Office, the Baton Rouge Police Department, the State Police, the Attorney General’s Office and the FBI.
Burgin Street is near the intersection of Lee Drive and Highland Road.
Sheriff’s officers obtained an affidavit and arrest warrant Wednesday that charged Gillis with three counts of first-degree murder. The affidavit said Gillis had “specific intention to kill” each of the three women.
He also was charged with three counts of ritualistic acts, described in state law as ceremonial mutilation or torture.
Johnston’s body was found about a mile south of campus off Ben Hur Road between Nicholson and Burbank drives in February.
Williams’ body was found in a wooded area in northern East Baton Rouge Parish near Pride in October.
Hall was found in the Vignes Lake subdivision off Hoo Shoo Too and Tigerbend roads in the southeastern part of the parish in January 1999.
The women were strangled and then mutilated after death.
Lt. Col. Greg Phares of the Sheriff’s Office said a “unique” tire track off Ben Hur linked Gillis to Johnston’s murder.
The affidavit stated the tire impressions investigators retrieved were a type left by a specific “brand, model and type.” There were fewer than 90 transactions for this particular tire in Baton Rouge during the three-year period they were manufactured, which ended in 2003.
Phares and the affidavit did not release any more specific details about the tire track, but the affidavit stated that Gillis drove a car with the type of tires that left the tracks at the Ben Hur scene.
However, police had a Mazda vehicle towed from Gillis’ home Thursday afternoon.
After connecting Gillis through his vehicle, investigators obtained a voluntary DNA swab from him Wednesday around 9 a.m. Analysts then compared the sample to DNA evidence from Hall, Williams and Johnston’s bodies.
State Police and FBI analysts said Gillis’ DNA matched samples found on the three bodies.
According to the affidavit, Gillis said during an interview that his vehicle was at the Ben Hur scene about six days before Johnston’s body was found.
He also said he had a relationship with Williams during the last eight years of her life.
A Sheriff’s Department news release said Gillis gave no resistance to officers upon his arrest, and he was booked into the parish prison around 6:30 a.m. Thursday.
Phares said Gillis had two prior arrests — one for DWI and another for trespassing.
Authorities have categorized Johnston, Williams and Hall as women who led “high risk” lifestyles according to their arrest records.
High risk lifestyles include drug use, walking the streets late at night and prostitution.
Many people have assumed each woman was a prostitute, but Phares did not confirm that.
“We have not — in the course of this investigation — characterized these women as prostitutes, and we will not do so now,” he said.
John Dullock, who lives across the street from Gillis’ house, saw the officers in the neighborhood Thursday morning, but he said they told him they were there for a burglary raid. He was awakened by a loud boom that police later said was a concussion grenade, used to clear an area.
Sheriff’s Officers “looked like a SWAT team with machine guns,” Dullock said.
Another neighbor, Chad Killen, was surprised by the raid.
“It was pretty much a surprise to everybody,” he said. “They told me he was pretty odd — he just kind of kept to himself.”
Two women inside Gillis’ house would not come outside or talk to reporters.
Gillis’ DNA is being tested for links to other murders such as that of Hardee Schmidt.
The Homicide Task Force also is responsible for the investigation of Derrick Todd Lee, the other accused serial killer.
Lee is accused in the murders of seven south Louisiana women who were killed between April 1998 and March 2003. Authorities have linked him to the killings through DNA evidence.
Authorities arrested Lee in May 2003.
The woman police say is Lee’s only survivor testified against him in a January pre-trial hearing.
Lee’s first trial is scheduled to begin May 10. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
— Assistant Photo Editor Adam Campbell contributed to this story.