Source: Photo courtesy of WALB / Beauty Couch’s boyfriend Eugene Louis-Jocques (left) and Beauty Couch (right).
Eugene Tobi Louis-Jocques, 24, has been convicted for the 2023 murder of his girlfriend, Atlanta influencer and roller skater Beauty Couch, according to a report from Atlanta News First. On May 22, a Cobb County jury found Louis-Jocques guilty on multiple charges, including murder, aggravated assault, second-degree arson, concealing a death, and tampering with evidence in connection to Couch’s killing. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 20 years, according to the outlet.
During the trial, which began on May 19, prosecutors revealed disturbing details surrounding Couch’s death. According to Atlanta News First, prosecutors alleged that Louis-Jocques “stabbed Couch 81 times before setting fire to her car.”
As previously reported, Couch’s body was discovered in a wooded area near a burned vehicle, which investigators later discovered she owned. Testimony presented in court stated that Couch, 22, was found burned and buried beneath sticks and debris in a wooded area of Austell, Georgia, not far from the scorched car, on Aug. 23, 2023. The Austell Fire Department located the influencer after responding to a brush fire near Joe Jerkins Boulevard and Landers Street, according to a release from the Cobb County Police Department at the time.
Investigators said they found a traffic ticket in Eugene Tobi Louis-Jocques name close to the scene of the crime.
Two days later, detectives with the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Proactive Enforcement Unit arrested Louis-Jocques in the Slidell area of Louisiana. At the time of his arrest, he was facing charges of murder, arson, and aggravated assault connected to Couch’s death.
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The case took a turn on May 21 when a Cobb County Police Department investigator testified that officers discovered a traffic ticket at the crime scene just feet away from Couch’s body. The ticket reportedly belonged to Louis-Jocques and included the license plate number tied to his vehicle.
Authorities later tracked the vehicle to Louisiana, where Louis-Jocques was stopped and arrested. Prosecutors also presented cell phone location data and license plate reader records that allegedly placed him near the scene on the day Couch disappeared.
Jurors were also shown previously unreleased body camera footage from Louis-Jocques’s arrest. In the video, he allegedly identified himself to officers using the fake name “Mykael Waters,” Atlanta News First noted in a separate report published May 21. Detectives testified that they also recovered a Boost Mobile receipt and a completed job application for a Louisiana golf course, both under the same alias, from inside his vehicle.
Louis-Jocques’s defense attorney argued that investigators unfairly focused on him simply because he was Beauty Couch’s boyfriend and stressed the absence of DNA evidence linking him directly to the crime.
“We don’t deny, we know it was horrible,” Louis-Jacques’ attorney, Bryan Lumpkin, told the jury in his closing argument, according to Court TV. “There’s a lot of things about this evidence that are consistent with my client being guilty here, but that’s not proved beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Lumpkin argued that the traffic ticket may have been placed “intentionally, by someone,” at the scene of the crime, but it wasn’t enough to sway the jury.
Who was Beauty “Katera” Couch?
As MadameNoire previously reported, Couch, who was also known as Beauty Katera on Instagram, built a following of more than 149,000 fans through her roller skating dance videos and entertaining social media content. Earlier this month, the popular influencer hosted a roller skating class for supporters in Riverdale, Georgia.
Couch’s mother, Kimberly, told WSB-TV she was devastated by her daughter’s death. She described Couch as “a sweet girl” who “never bothered nobody.”
Kimberly added, “She was a friend to everybody. She loved going skating. She loved going to work. She loved her clothes. She loved wearing her hair so pretty. They took a part of my life from me. They took a part of my heart. I want them to pay for what they did to my baby.”
