New Orleans Man Sentenced After Trial Conviction for Carjacking and Federal Firearms Offenses

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA - SHAMPAIN POOLE ("POOLE"), age 23, of New Orleans, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jay C. Zainey on July 15, 2024, to 147 months in prison, followed by 5 years of supervised release, along with a mandatory $300 special assessment fee, after previously being found guilty by a jury of carjacking, brandishing a weapon during a crime of violence, and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

According to court records, POOLE carjacked a car at gunpoint from an eighty-year-old woman, in front of her home. She immediately reported the crime. Soon after the carjacking, POOLE was spotted driving the car the wrong way down a one-way street by New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) officers in a marked police car. POOLE abandoned the car, ran from the scene and went to the nearby home of a relative. NOPD officers saw POOLE outside the relative's home but he again fled and attempted to hide the gun used in the carjacking in the crawl space of another house. NOPD officers retrieved the home security video of that homeowner and recovered the gun, a Smith & Wesson Model M&P 40 Shield, .40 caliber semi-automatic pistol, which was fully loaded with one bullet in the chamber. POOLE had previously been convicted of two felony offenses, including illegal use of a weapon, and is prohibited from possessing a firearm.

United States Attorney Duane A Evans praised the work of the NOPD in this matter, for identifying POOLE as the perpetrator of this carjacking within 15 minutes of the offense.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.

The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and the New Orleans Police Department. Assistant United States Attorneys David Berman of the Violent Crime Unit and Mark A. Miller of the Narcotics Unit conducted the trial of this matter.