SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – After a week-long trial, it took a Caddo Parish jury less than an hour to find 26-year-old Daniel Haire guilty of manslaughter Thursday afternoon in the February 2020 crossbow death of 33-year-old Rodney Christopher Nordby.
Haire was originally charged with second-degree murder in the case. He was also convicted of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.
Two teens found Nordby’s body wrapped in a pair of comforters dumped in a grassy area near the parking lot at Cameron Park at the south end of Wallace Lake Road on Feb. 29, 2020. The teens called police after taking a closer look at the “suspicious” bundle.
An autopsy later confirmed Nordby had been fatally shot with a crossbow.
Haire, who took the stand and voluntarily testified on his own behalf as the defense’s last witness before closing arguments Thursday afternoon, first admitted several prior convictions, and then launched into the story of how he came to kill Nordby.
He said he had known Nordby for around four years, and that they had done drugs – specifically methamphetamine – together. Then, Haire said, he was in jail for 13 months and was released in early February. He admitted he smoked marijuana after his release, but said he did not do methamphetamine, though Nordby did.
Earlier in the week, the pathologist who performed Nordby’s autopsy, testified that there was methamphetamine in Nordby’s body at the time of his death.
Haire told the jury he and Nordby had been engaged in an argument the week before the murder, and that Nordby had tried to run him off the road. He testified that Nordby later threatened him through social media. Three days before to the murder, Haire contacted Shreveport Police, who came to his house and made a report.
On the day of the murder, Haire said he called Nordby and asked him to come to his house “to resolve things.” But Nordby didn’t show up right away. Late that night, Haire was in the kitchen getting something to eat when he looked out the window and saw someone in the backyard of his parents’ home, where he lived.
He said he went and got the crossbow and when the intruder went into the carport, he kicked open the door. In that second, Haire says he realized it was Nordby and, in a fit of rage, shot him through the chest with a bladed arrow.
The arrow penetrated Nordby’s chest, went through his left lung and came out the other side, as the stricken Nordby lunged through the door and onto the kitchen floor.
Haire said he panicked, went to his bedroom, pulled the bedding off his bed, quickly wrapped Nordby with the bedding, and called Dillon Brown to come to his house and help him take some trash to the dumpster.
Brown is charged as an accessory after the fact to second-degree murder. His trial date has not been set.
But during his own trial, Haire continued to deny Brown knew anything about the murder, and just believed he was helping his friend take out the trash.
