Originally published at National Catholic Register
Father Hecker’s death comes after a high-profile legal process in Louisiana that suffered repeated delays due to the elderly ex-priest’s reported health problems.
Lawrence Hecker, the disgraced Louisiana priest who was sentenced to life in prison this month over the rape of a teenage boy decades ago, died in prison at age 93 just days after his sentence was handed down.
Ken Pastorick, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety and Corrections, told CNA that Hecker “died at approximately 3 a.m., Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024, at Elayn Hunt Correction Center” in St. Gabriel.
The priest “died of natural causes,” Pastorick said.
Father Hecker’s death comes after a high-profile legal process in Louisiana that suffered repeated delays due to the elderly ex-priest’s reported health problems. He was indicted in September 2023 on felony charges related to allegations that he raped an underage teenage boy in the 1970s.
His trial was pushed back multiple times after his indictment as his attorneys claimed he was too sick to attend courtroom proceedings. State prosecutors vowed to bring him into the courtroom on a hospital stretcher in order to allow the trial to continue.
He ultimately pleaded guilty this month to kidnapping
