St. Landry District Attorney Earl Taylor said Friday that his office has no plans to proceed with any further action against William Picou and Spencer Hebert, both accused in the shooting death of Lance Babineaux.

Taylor said a grand jury’s decision to return a no true bill against each on Thursday indications there would be difficulty proving the charges at trial.

Grand jurors, for whatever their reasons, did not believe a manslaughter charge against William Picou warranted prosecution.

It felt the same way about a principal to manslaughter charge against Spencer Hebert.

Picou, 23, and Hebert, 19, were charged in the Dec. 20, 2008, shooting death of Babineaux, 31, in his North C.C. Duson home.

Grand jury proceedings are secret, so it is not known what information led to jurors’ finding no reason to indict.

What is known is that police alleged Picou and Babineaux argued earlier in the night at a Eunice bar.

Sometime later, police alleged, Picou and Hebert went to Babineaux’s home.

Shortly afterward, Babineaux was shot, at least twice police said at the time, by a .45 caliber pistol allegedly belonging to Picou.

Subsequently it was learned that Babineaux threatened Iraq veteran Picou with a fake gun.

The District Attorney’s Office chose to seek an indictment rather than file a bill of information in the case, which, DA Earl Taylor said, is standard procedure in cases when circumstances are not clear.

“We use it as a sounding board in some cases,” Taylor said.

Grand jury indictment is required in Louisiana only for capital or life-sentence cases