NBC' 'Dateline' to feature Louisiana's Courtney Coco case Friday

The NBC program "Dateline" will feature the case of Courtney Coco on Friday.

The body of 19-year-old Coco was found on Oct. 4, 2004, in an abandoned building in Winnie, Texas, a small community south of Beaumont along Interstate 10. But it wasn't until April 2021 that David Anthony Burns was indicted and arrested in the case.

Burns, who had been dating Coco's sister at the time of her death, was found guilty in October 2022. According to testimony during the trial, Burns and Coco were seeing each other while he was dating her sister.

The Rapides Parish jury took 90 minutes to find him guilty of second-degree murder, which carries a mandatory life sentence without the benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence.

Burns was defiant in declaring his innocence after Coco's family gave victim impact statements in late November at what was to have been his sentencing. He denied killing her and told her family they wouldn't find peace because they knew he didn't do it.

"You know I would not do something like this," he said, facing the family in the courtroom's gallery. "You know I'm not hiding nothing, ain't nothing to hide."

Burns refused to waive a 24-hour waiting period after his motion for a new trial was rejected, so 9th Judicial District Court Judge Maruy Lauve Doggett allowed Coco's family to proceed with their victim impact statements and sentenced him the next day.

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Those who spoke at the sentencing remembered how Burns was a pallbearer at Coco's funeral and how he had helped her grandfather when he had a stroke as she was being buried.

Coco's grandmother, Ina Laborde, told him she loved him still and asked him if he loved her. He said he did.

But Burns got no love from Coco's mother, Stephanie Belgard. She cried and raged at him, pointing to a photo of her daughter and reading a poem Coco wrote in junior high school about what she wanted to do with her life.

"I hate you, and I pray you rot in Angola," she cried while looking at Burns. "I hope I never ever see your face again."

She told Burns he'd been hiding from them all through the years, even as he became a youth pastor.

"Nothing can fix this. Nothing. I want my baby girl back."

Belgard has become a force for the families of violent crime since her daughter's death. She works with the national group, Parents of Murdered Children, and often supports other families as their own loved ones' cases wind through the justice system.

The two-hour "Dateline" episode will air at 8 p.m. on KALB-TV locally and other NBC affiliates across the state. It will be available on NBC's steaming app, Peacock, the next day.

This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: Courtney Coco cold case to be featured on NBC's 'Dateline' on Friday