Chester Pierre Vegas Sr., 78, of Cut Off, is charged with second-degree murder in the Oct.
Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig Webre said that Vegas was a longtime suspect in the case, which was reopened in October.
According to authorities and news reports at the time, Chester Vegas called sheriff’s deputies and police to the couple’s restaurant, the Chicken House, in the town of Golden Meadow shortly before 11 p.m.
Vegas, who was 34 at the time, told detectives he’d found his wife dead in the restaurant’s kitchen.
Some residents in the close-knit community where the killing took place expressed shock over Chester Vegas’ arrest.
Another former Popeyes co-worker, Sheila Melancon, wrote that it was scary to think she’d been so close to someone alleged to have committed such a violent crime.
“My sister and I were robbed of ever meeting our real grandmother and my sister’s namesake because of this man, and they let him walk,” Kayla Vegas wrote.
The younger Vegas, 58, is currently in prison in Virginia, where he is serving time for a probation violation on prior drug and attempted assault charges, according to prison records.
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