Brandon Lavergne’s Family Releases Statement + New Details In Lavergne’s Sex Offender Past

LAFAYETTE, La. (KPEL) -- The mother of 33-year-old Brandon Scott Lavergne, the man arrested and charged with the first degree murder and aggravated kidnapping of Mickey Shunick, has released a statement regarding her son's arrest.

"I would like to offer my condolences to the Shunick family," Cynthia Lavergne says. "I would also like to have closure. I know I'm sorry is never enough however, it is all I have to offer at this moment. I am learning about this case as everyone else is, one newscast at a time, one Facebook post at a time, and one phone call at a time."

Cynthia Lavergne also revealed on KATC TV-3's Facebook page that Brandon Lavergne was adopted, though this posting appears to have been deleted.

"I adopted Brandon at birth to give him the family he deserved," Cynthia says. "I am not saying this to minimize the relationship with my son. I'm stating this so that no one else has the chance to say or reveal what is rightfully mine to do."

Brandon's brother, Joushua Lavergne, also posted on Facebook.

"I would like to say I'm sorry for what the Shunick family has gone through," he says. "I was and still am one of the many residents of Acadiana that wants to see this young woman brought home...We do not condone anything that has gone on and are in shock that someone we call family would be arrested for such a sick crime."

This posting, too, appears to have been deleted.

Lavergne is a convicted sex offender. According to the Louisiana State Police Sex Offender Registry, he was convicted in 2000 of oral sexual battery stemming from a 1999 incident in which he broke into a woman's house, tied her up, and forced her to perform a sexual act on him, according to police reports.

Our news partners at KATC TV-3, who were able to uncover those records in Evangeline Parish, says Lavergne told a different story in that incident, though. Lavergne told police at the time he was voluntarily led inside the home, and the oral sex was consensual. But when things went too far, Lavergne told investigators the victim flew into a rage, cursing and punching him. The two of them wrestled, and he eventually got the victim into a headlock, reports indicate. She then kicked him out out the house, and he complied.

Lavergne pled guilty in that incident, according to court records. Lavergne was sentenced to 10 years for that crime, but he was released in 2008.