BATON ROUGE — A grand jury has declined to charge Thomas Franklin, who was arrested in connection with a 2023 hunting death after he allegedly shot and killed a man he mistook for a deer.

The grand jury pretermitted the negligent homicide charge against Franklin on Wednesday.

Franklin, 56, was arrested after 34-year-old Jacob Altazan was shot and killed during a Christmas weekend hunting trip. Franklin told police he mistook Altazan for a deer.

According to his arrest warrant, Altazan, and two other males, including Thomas Franklin, had all gone hunting in the woods near 11175 Scenic Highway. The other man stated they split up in an attempt to "jump" some deer. He told police he heard one shot, followed by Franklin yelling for help.

A security camera captured Altazan, Franklin and another man packing up their car at 3 p.m. that day. Police were dispatched to the scene at 4:20 p.m.

During his police interview, Franklin said he thought he saw a deer walking up the ridgeline towards him and quickly fired one round. He realized he had shot Altazan when he fell to the ground. Franklin said he immediately ran to get help. He also told police no one was wearing hunter's orange safety vests when the shooting happened.

David Doucet, a friend of Altazan's, said Altazan was diligent about hunting safety and was seen wearing his orange gear while packing up to leave.

"He had orange on whenever he got out of the vehicle and went into the woods and the time frame that I put together they couldn't have been in the woods very long at all and where did his orange go to?" Doucet said. "He didn't take it off and throw it on the ground?"

Doucet said it's hard for him to believe Altazan removed his vest. He also questioned why Franklin fired without first locating the third person in the group.

"Jacob had orange on when he got out of the vehicle and went into the woods," Doucet said. "He went into the woods before them two and if something did happen and his orange did come off for whatever reason, why would you go into the woods and discharge a firearm without putting your eyes on that third person when you know he's in there?"

Doucet said the third man from the group described what he witnessed after hearing the gunshot.

"He heard the gunshot go off. Then he heard screaming and whenever he got to where the screaming was coming from, Tommy [Franklin] was standing there with the gun talking about 'it accidentally went off' and 'he's dead'."