Storm Of Murder

Breakdown Of New Orleans' Infrastructure Escalates City's Murder Rate

(CBS)  Before Christmas 2006, members of the Rabouin High School band were still practicing on school books and desks. The instruments Dinerral had worked so hard to get finally arrived just days after he was murdered.

Dinerral never got to hear Richshad Lee, one of his students, play his first notes on baritone. "I just sit there. I wanted to cry but I was like, couldn't do it," Richshad says.

Asked why not, Richshad tells Moriarty, "It's like, I hurted so bad if I cry, I'm going to keep on crying, crying, crying, crying."

On Dec. 29, 2006, police arrested 17-year-old David Bonds in the murder of Dinerral Shavers. Lt. Joe Meisch was head of homicide for the New Orleans Police Department. He said there are three witnesses - all young girls - who named Bonds as the gunman.

"And at this point, how many witnesses do you have that are willing to go to trial?" Moriarty asks.

"Actually in this case we have several witnesses that are very strong witnesses. I'm a 100 percent confident that David Bonds will be convicted of this case," Meisch says.

As confident as the police say they are, the truth is convictions for murder in New Orleans are rare. Just how rare? Dinerral Shavers was one of 162 homicides in 2006. Police made arrests in a third of those cases but there have been only five convictions.

The numbers don't lie: in New Orleans, a lot of people are getting away with murder.

"How important is it that these cases actually go to trial and someone is held accountable?" Moriarty asks Principal Kevin George.

"That is the biggest thing here. And I think that's why so many of these killers are so callous. They very rarely see anybody go to trial and go to jail," he says.

In 2007, nearly 3,000 suspects ranging from alleged drug dealers to murderers were simply released because the district attorney failed to file charges.

But even when charges are filed, cases often fall apart.

What’s the effect?

"I think the effect is no one wants to testify because they're afraid that this guy is gonna be out of jail. No one wants to put themselves out there," says George.

And even Dinerral's students understand that fear.

Rufus and Richshad both say they would be afraid to come forward if they saw a crime.

"Cuz I wouldn't wanna jeopardize my life or my family life. So, I wouldn't come forward," Rufus explains.

"We have to think about after I talk what are we gonna do now. How will the police protect my family? Where they’re gonna be at?" Richshad says.

Still, police say they're confident that in Dinerral Shavers' case witness testimony will put away the alleged killer.

"It sounds like in this case the witnesses are crucial to convicting David Bonds," Moriarty asks.

"Absolutely. Absolutely. The witnesses are crucial," Meisch says.

But public defender William Boggs says, "I think they have the wrong guy."

Boggs is Bonds' lawyer. He claims the overtaxed police department did a shoddy investigation. "You had a rumor which was repeated by a 15-year-old, maybe two 15-year-olds that the police seized upon and then declared the case solved. I believe they did that because of the pressure that was on them to solve murders in the city," he says.

According to Boggs, there's no physical evidence to connect Bonds to the murder: police found the murder weapon but they can’t connect it to Bonds. And the "several" witnesses Lt. Meisch was so confident about began to back out.

"There were, by all accounts, up to 20 on the street," Boggs says. "There should be lots of witnesses."

Asked how many witnesses the prosecution has offered, Boggs says, "One witness."

That witness was a 15-year-old girl. And with all the pressure on her, her mother refuses to let her testify. She called a local television station to explain. "They should have been getting all these witnesses instead of depending on one little child," the mother said.

In June 2007 Dinerral’s sister Nakita and Baty Landis come to court only to see the case against the man accused of killing Dinerral fall apart: the second-degree murder charges were dropped.

Like so many other suspects, Bonds was simply released without going to trial.

"There isn't anything that they could say to me that would justify them dropping the case; anything at all," Nakita says.