Louisiana man pleads guilty in slayings of 2 women

Lavergne required to give details about slayings

BATON ROUGE, La. — A Louisiana college student desperately tried to fend off her killer by spraying him with mace and even stabbing him several times with his own knife before he fatally shot her last May, officials said.

Brandon Scott Lavergne, 33, pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of first-degree murder in the death of the student, Michaela “Mickey” Shunick, and the separate July 1999 slaying of Lisa Marie Pate.

Under a plea deal to avoid the death penalty, Lavergne, a registered sex offender, was required to give details about both slayings in exchange for a life sentence without parole.

The details were revealed in a guilty plea hearing Friday.

Shunick, a student at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, went missing in the early hours of May 19 after leaving a friend’s house on her bicycle.