Kelvin Atkins

Introduction

Kelvin Atkins is a New Orleans felon and parolee who was sentenced on Friday, November 6, 2026, to spend “the rest of his natural life” in prison for the July 2023 murder of Johnshane “Nay” Powell, a 33-year-old mother of two who was also the niece of Orleans Parish Criminal District Judge Kimya Holmes. A jury found Atkins guilty of second-degree murder at a September retrial, and retired judge Calvin Johnson, sitting ad hoc, imposed the mandatory life term with no parole eligibility, the New York Post reported.

Background Information

Atkins was on parole at the time of the killing for a prior felony: court records show he pleaded guilty in 2004 to attempted armed robbery for his role in a stickup that left a 57-year-old man dead outside the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, according to NOLA.com. He and Powell, whose family links to the criminal bench would later shape the case, had dated for about three months. On July 1, 2023, Powell reported to police that Atkins had assaulted her and stolen a 9mm Beretta from her purse; authorities said he slapped her, pulled her hair and bit her leg during the encounter.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted and sentenced. A New Orleans jury found Atkins guilty of second-degree murder and gun possession on September 18, 2026, at a retrial after an earlier jury deadlocked; on November 6, 2026, the court imposed a mandatory life sentence with no parole eligibility. The conviction is final, not alleged.

Atkins was arrested on July 1, 2023, two days before the slaying, on domestic-abuse charges. Despite his parole status, he was freed within a day, posting bail and walking back onto the streets, much to Powell’s stated fear. “What happens if y’all let him go and I end up dead tomorrow,” the mother of two asked officers in the days before her killing, prosecutors said. A magistrate commissioner had found insufficient evidence to hold him on the gun complaint and one of two battery complaints, and NOLA.com reported the commissioner advised Atkins against disclosing whether he had access to a firearm — advice domestic violence advocates called a violation of a state law meant to separate domestic-abuse suspects from their weapons.

On the night of July 3, 2023, Atkins shot Powell 19 times with a .40-caliber Glock pistol outfitted with a drum magazine in the 2400 block of New Orleans Street, in the Seventh Ward. Prosecutors said his motive was fear of her testimony: a domestic-abuse conviction would have carried an enhanced sentence under Louisiana’s habitual-offender law given his prior record. As Powell lay dying on the pavement, a New Orleans police officer’s body camera recorded her identifying her killer by the nickname “K,” which prosecutors said abbreviated Atkins’s first name.

His first trial, in 2025, ended with a jury deadlocked on the murder count, though it convicted him of obstruction of justice and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon — counts for which Judge Johnson sentenced him to 60 years as a repeat offender. At the September 2026 retrial, Judge Holmes, Powell’s aunt, testified for the state, trading her black robe for a blue dress to tell the court her niece “loved hard, and if she cared about you, she protected you with all that she had,” and describing the agony of breaking the news to Powell’s daughters, then 4 and 8: “I don’t think anything can prepare you for that.” Lead defense attorney Ryan Thompson argued that no fingerprint or DNA evidence tied Atkins to the weapon or to any of the 22 shell casings recovered, and suggested “K” referred to a female cousin of Atkins’s found cradling Powell, not to the defendant. The retrial jury deliberated a little more than an hour before convicting on both counts.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office, which District Attorney Jason Williams joined in steering the retrial, publicized the verdict in a September press conference alongside the victim’s family; Williams described the murder as an act of “rage and control,” saying Powell “did exactly what we ask domestic violence victims to do” before she was “shot 19 times on a New Orleans street.” Assistant District Attorney Adele Krieger said of the verdict, “She should be here.”

Because Powell was related to a sitting criminal court judge, every colleague of Judge Holmes on that bench recused himself or herself from the case, and the Louisiana Supreme Court appointed Johnson, a retired judge, to hear it. At sentencing, Johnson told Atkins, “Here we are again looking failure in the face, looking you in the face,” musing aloud about rehabilitation programs the system had tried. Family members filled the courtroom: Holmes wept as the September verdict was read, Powell’s mother called the conviction a “blessing,” and Powell’s younger sister urged mourners to “remember her as the fearless person that she was.”

Current Status

Atkins, 39 at sentencing per the New York Post and NOLA.com’s trial coverage, gave no statement when the life term was imposed and is now in the custody of the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections to serve it. The mandatory sentence carries no parole eligibility. No appeal has been reported as of November 8, 2026, and no further charges are pending.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Atkins, who held no public role, will spend the remainder of his life in prison absent appellate relief, on top of the 60-year term already imposed for the obstruction and gun convictions from his first trial. The case has become a touchpoint in New Orleans debates over domestic-violence handling: advocates pointed to the magistrate’s advice about the gun question and to Powell’s release-into-danger as evidence that a state law meant to disarm domestic-abuse suspects remains largely ineffective, and her killing of a judge’s relative drew citywide attention to the toll on women — Powell was one of 82 women shot in New Orleans in 2023, 17 of them fatally.

Sources

• New York Post, “Parolee who fatally shot niece of New Orleans judge 19 times lands life behind bars,” November 8, 2026. source
• NOLA.com, “Parolee handed life for murder of New Orleans judge’s niece,” November 7, 2026. source
• NOLA.com, “Ex-boyfriend guilty in killing of local judge’s niece,” September 19, 2026. source
• NOLA.com, “Man accused of killing niece of a New Orleans judge pleads not guilty,” February 2024. source
• Orleans Parish District Attorney, “Three Guilty Verdicts, One Commitment: Justice for Victims and Their Families,” September 23, 2026. source
• WDSU, “New Orleans man convicted of 2023 murder of ex-girlfriend,” September 2026. source