BATON ROUGE - Baton Rouge Police have identified a man who was shot to death Thursday night.

Detectives confirmed a homicide Thursday night around 8:42 p.m. near the 1400 block of Thomas H. Delpit Drive. Eric Johnson, 54, was found dead with multiple gunshot wounds.

Details on any suspects or motives are unclear.

This is a developing story.

LAFAYETTE - Seven months after the head of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries resigned after he was implicated in an apparent kickback scheme involving a contract the agency signed with a private contractor, federal prosecutors charged a contractor with conspiracy charges.

The Advocate was first to report on the situation that led to Jack Montoucet's abrupt resignation earlier this year. The newspaper identified Montoucet as one of the public officials involved.

This week, federal prosecutors charged Joseph Prejean with conspiracy charges tied to a scheme involving C & A Consulting Services. Prosecutors said a man named Dusty Guidry and another public official would use their positions to unlawfully steer and attempt to steer participants in a pretrial diversion program to classes and services offered by C&A Consulting. Prosecutors allege Prejean corruptly solicited $25,000 from a person then split that money with the other parties.

"When the feds are on to you, good luck," LSU Law Professor Ken Levy said. "They have ample investigative resources, and if they are aware of you committing this kind of corruption, they have the laws and investigative agents and will to come after you."

One of the people involved in the scheme plead guilty earlier this year. Dusty Guidry was a former employee of the East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney's Office.

District Attorney Hillar Moore said his office launched an audit when the allegations came to light. That audit recently was completed and revealed no findings.

"You wonder how this happens," Levy said. "In a way, it's very self destructive. To engage in this kind of corruption, you're going to get caught. You certainly are going to get caught lose your job and go to jail."

As of now, Montoucet remains unnamed in any court documents. He has not been charged.

BATON ROUGE - A longtime local attorney is charged in a felony case that accuses him of trying to smuggle drugs to an inmate inside the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison, and -- in a separate matter -- of trying to pay witnesses so they would not to show up in court.

Stephen Carver Leblanc, 77, has been practicing law in Louisiana since 1973.

Records reviewed by the WBRZ Investigative Unit show that his initial arrest follows an incident on Nov. 2 in which Leblanc went to the jail to meet with a client -- Leroy George -- being held on a murder charge and facing additional felony counts.

According to investigative records: The defendant walked through the gate entering the secured part of the prison area carrying a manila folder and other paperwork. The defendant walked past several visible signs prohibiting entrance into the facility with contraband. The defendant entered unit one building at 1406 hours, then attempted to give a deputy the manila folder advising the manila folder (contained) paperwork for George...

The deputy who received the paperwork noticed the top sheet stated, "Dietary Supplemental Menu for Diagnosis Hypertension for: Leroy George, III." The sheets in the middle were saturated with some form of chemical. Immediately suspecting contraband, she put on gloves for her protection prior to handling the papers.

Arrest records show no legal documents were in the folder, and that George became angry when he did not receive the contents of the folder.

A narcotics agent took possession of the papers. A field test was ruled "inconclusive," but later testing at the Louisiana State Police Crime Lab determined that the documents "contained controlled dangerous substances."

Records said that "confidential sources have estimated the inside prison value of each sheet of paper with the controlled dangerous substance could be ten thousand dollars ($10,000.00), for the potential total value of one hundred ten thousand dollars ($110,000.00)."

An investigation suggests that George needed money to pay Leblanc for his services.

Leblanc was booked in that case on Nov. 7. He was re-booked on Nov. 29 on a count of corrupt influencing.

In the latter case, Leblanc is accused of taking checks from a different client, also charged with murder, as part of an effort to pay off witnesses and to prevent their appearance in court.

That client, Curtis Lee Stewart, Jr., has also been charged with a felony count of corrupt influencing.

Investigators cited incriminating phone calls, which were recorded, as they laid out their case.

“I’m 77 years old planning to finish the cases I have and retire,” Leblanc told WBRZ in a statement following inquiries, adding: "When a client directs his attorney to disburse the client's funds to someone, my understanding of the attorney disciplinary rules requires the attorney to disburse the client’s funds as directed by the client.”

Regarding the folder that contained the drug-laced paperwork, Leblanc said in a statement: "I trusted a client’s disabled mother who asked me to deliver an article to her son for his medical problem would not contain drugs. I’ve paid a high price for not checking the article. I’ve always thought that anything I can do to make the life of a client in jail better, I’ll do it, unfortunately, in both these cases, much to my regret. I’ve been doing this for over 50 years. Now it’s time to finish up and retire."

Leblanc posted bond and was released on Wednesday. Online records show no disciplinary action against him by the state board that regulates attorney conduct.