A McComb attorney indicted in the March 2021 death of a woman at his home was arrested on domestic violence charges Monday in Louisiana, where he was living while undergoing drug treatment as a condition of his release on bond.
Robert Lenoir, 46, was booked into the Franklin Parish, La., jail on a charge of domestic abuse battery, according to jail officials. No bond had been set as of Tuesday afternoon.
Winnsboro, La., Police Chief Tyrone Coleman said Tuesday that officers responded to a disturbance at a house where Lenoir had been living on Monday morning. Officers also arrested a woman at the house.
“He and a young lady had an altercation,” Coleman said.
He said three children were present during the arrests, two of whom were with Lenoir and another who was with the woman, who the chief did not identify.
Coleman said no major injuries were reported in the incident, although Lenoir “had some superficial injuries.”
A Pike County grand jury indicted Lenoir this summer on seven counts, including first-degree murder, in the death of Wendy Dansby, 55, of Madison County, who was found dead at him home in McComb on March 30, 2021.
A preliminary autopsy report indicated she died of a brain bleed but gave no information about how that injury occurred.
In addition to the murder charge, Lenoir was indicted on two counts of possession of methamphetamine, an evidence tampering charge for allegedly trying to eat the drug in a police department interview room, a child abuse charge for allegedly exposing a 2-year-old to meth, and a witness tampering charge for alleged attempts to induce Reagon Zufelt “to testify falsely or provide a false version of events exonerating or incriminating another person,” according to the indictment.
Lenoir had bonded out of the Pike County jail on $200,000 last year after a judge ordered him to undergo treatment at a rehabilitation center as a condition of his release.
Lenoir’s attorney, Ronnie Whittington, told the court that Lenoir had been accepted into a treatment facility in Winnsboro.
Coleman, the Winnsboro police chief, said Lenoir had bought a house in the north Louisiana city, and he had met Lenoir before.
“He went through a program here,” Coleman said. “That’s when I first met him in that program.”
District Attorney Dee Bates’ office recused itself and the District Attorney’s office in Forrest County is prosecuting the case.
Dansby’s children, Sarah Grace Milton, Katherine Starkey and Daniel Booze, all residents of Livingston Parish, La., filed a lawsuit in Pike County Circuit Court March 29 claiming Lenoir caused her death through “numerous injuries including head trauma.”
Lenoir lost his license to practice law in Louisiana due to substance abuse issues. He was conditionally admitted to the Louisiana bar in 2012 but required to undergo five years of treatment.
Legal publication The Louisiana Record reported that the Louisiana Supreme Court revoked that conditional admission in 2018, saying he could reapply to the bar after a year of sobriety.
