Johnshane Powell contacted police two days before her death, and prosecutors later used that history in the case against Kelvin Atkins.
NEW ORLEANS, La. — Two days before Johnshane Powell was fatally shot on a New Orleans street, she reported a domestic incident involving her former boyfriend, Kelvin Atkins, beginning a short sequence of events that later became an important part of his murder prosecution.
A jury convicted Atkins on Sept. 18 of second-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in Powell’s July 3, 2023, killing. The Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office described the case as a domestic violence murder and said the evidence showed Powell had sought police help shortly before her death. Atkins is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 6 and faces mandatory life imprisonment without parole on the murder conviction.
Court records provide a detailed account of the July 1 police response. During a later hearing in the criminal case, a New Orleans police officer testified that she answered a call involving a domestic incident and encountered Atkins and Powell. Body-camera footage introduced during that proceeding showed Powell reporting that Atkins had taken her purse, which contained her car keys, credit cards and a firearm.
The district attorney’s office said Powell also reported that Atkins had assaulted her and stolen her firearm. Earlier reporting on the case said Powell had made another domestic abuse complaint in June. Those reports became part of the background examined by investigators after Powell was shot in the 2400 block of New Orleans Street on July 3.
Powell’s concerns about her safety had also been documented before her death. In records cited in earlier reporting, police asked Powell whether she believed Atkins might seriously injure or kill her. Powell answered yes and said he talked about it repeatedly. The statement was recorded before Atkins was charged with her murder and later became part of public reporting about the events preceding the shooting.
After Powell was killed, investigators assembled evidence that prosecutors said contradicted Atkins’ account of his whereabouts. The district attorney’s office said surveillance footage, cellphone records and witness statements undermined his claim that he was in Slidell on the night of the shooting. Prosecutors also said an officer’s body-camera footage captured Powell naming Atkins as the person who shot her before she died.
The prosecution did not end with the first trial. An earlier jury was unable to reach a verdict on the murder charge, forcing prosecutors to try the case again. Powell’s family returned for the retrial, which ended with the September conviction. The district attorney’s office said the second jury convicted Atkins of both second-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Powell was 33 and the mother of two girls. Her grandmother, Sylvia Holmes, has spoken publicly since the killing about the effect of Powell’s death on the children and other family members. Following the retrial, Holmes thanked prosecutors and investigators for continuing with the case after the first jury failed to reach a murder verdict.
District Attorney Jason Williams said Powell had done what authorities urge people facing domestic violence to do by reporting abuse and seeking help. His office has described her killing as an example of the severe risks that can surround intimate-partner violence. Prosecutors said the July 1 report and other evidence helped establish the history between Powell and Atkins, while the murder verdict ultimately rested on evidence presented to and accepted by the jury at the retrial.
Atkins remains in custody awaiting sentencing. His Nov. 6 hearing will follow a prosecution that began after Powell’s 2023 death, passed through pretrial appeals and an earlier hung jury, and ended with the second jury finding him guilty of her murder.
Author note: Last updated September 24, 2026.