'Can't get nothing': Sister describes identity theft at hands of woman who killed brother

GLENMORA — At some point after her brother's murder, Megan Wiggins got a call about a debit card found at another residence that had her name on it.

After picking up the card, she called the issuer, Bank of America, to check it out, because she hadn't opened an account with the bank. To her shock, a customer service representative began reading off a list of transactions that totaled about $34,000.

Bells went off when the rep read off a Cash App transaction to Kayla Giles.

"I was like, 'Oh, hell no,'" Wiggins said.

Giles was her sister-in-law, the woman who murdered her only sibling at the Coliseum Boulevard Walmart in Alexandria on Sept. 8, 2018. Thomas Coutee Jr. died in the parking lot from one shot to his heart fired by Giles from less than two feet away as her two daughters got into Coutee's truck.

Coutee had been picking up his two step-daughters so they could attend the second birthday party of the daughter he shared with Giles, who was inside the truck.

In January 2022, on her 35th birthday, Giles was convicted of Coutee's murder and later was sentenced to life plus 30 years. Shortly after that, she pleaded guilty in the identity theft case. She's already served her time on that crime, although last year she filed a motion for post-conviction relief in the case.

Meanwhile, Wiggins continues to grieve and struggles to rebuild her financial life. And what she's discovered is most of the work to reclaim her identity falls on her, and it's not easy.

"It leaves you screwed, you know what I’m saying?," Wiggins said during a November interview. "I couldn’t finance a TV right now if I wanted to. I can’t even get a checking account."

Finding out her identity was stolen

Wiggins doesn't remember the exact day she got the call about the debit card. She called her mother, Cathy Pearson, to tell her. Pearson reported it to the Louisiana assistant attorney general handling the murder case.

Wiggins began visiting the unemployment websites of various states, trying to see where accounts might have been opened in her name. And she found them — California, New York, Pennsylvania, Georgia and more, about 12 accounts in her name for collecting unemployment benefits.

She recalled telling officials in various states that she'd never even flown on an airplane, much less been to their states.

She had to prove to California officials that she wasn't the one trying to steal information from the account opened in her name. It took "an act of Congress" to get information from them, Wiggins said.

When she did, she found her mail was being redirected to an address in Forest Hill.

At one point, she got a letter from New York state officials about warrants that had been issued for her arrest for filing false claims. A call from the attorney general's office resolved that, she said.

But the damage was done. The more she looked, the more she found.

"They had been doing stuff in Texas in my name. They had a Verizon phone in my name," Wiggins said. "They’d been trying to buy cars all over Texas, Lafayette and stuff.

"I mean, what am I supposed to do?"

She believes more help for victims like her should be available, especially since Giles pleaded guilty in the case. She even emailed former Gov. John Bel Edwards' office for help but got no response.

"I just feel, like, they got a conviction," she said. "There should be somebody who can help take care of all that."

She believes someone else helped Giles so she could steal people's identities. Between her brother's murder and the theft of her identity, she's become disillusioned with a lot of law enforcement and the justice system, she said.

Wiggins rents a lot where she lives, but she says she can't buy land or a new vehicle. When she bought a truck, she had to do it in her boyfriend's name, she said.

"I couldn’t even get Fingerhut, you know what I’m saying?" she said. "Everybody gets Fingerhut. Can’t get nothing."

Wiggins said she once asked her brother why Giles hated her. She said he told her Giles believed someone in Wiggins' family was responsible for legal trouble her father had gotten into decades before.

"Something I had nothing to do with," she said.

The tension created a year-long rift between the siblings that had healed about three months before Coutee's murder. Wiggins said she still feels guilty about that and always believed Giles would kill either her, Coutee or their mother.

"And look what happened," she said.

Arrest of Giles, another woman in scheme

It wasn't until October 2020 that Giles and another woman, Terri Nichole Champagne, were arrested on multiple charges of identity theft and other counts.

At the time Champagne — also known as Teri Nichole Thibodeaux — was interviewed, she told investigators Giles had "an extreme dislike" for the victim, Wiggins.

It was alleged that the scheme netted about $300,000 in employment benefits paid by Louisiana and other states. An affidavit stated investigators believed the scheme had been in operation between May and October 2020, and that Wiggins contacted the Louisiana Bureau of Investigation in July 2020.

Champagne was formally charged in Rapides Parish but failed to appear at her arraignment in April 2021. A warrant was issued for her arrest.

She was arrested in Lafayette Parish in September on unrelated charges, but still has open charges in Rapides Parish on two felony counts of identity theft, according to online Rapides Parish Clerk of Court records. One of the victims is Wiggins. The other is listed only by initials.

The original prosecutor no longer works for the Louisiana Attorney General's Office. Telephone messages left with that office and with the Rapides Parish Public Defender's Office were not immediately returned.

Wiggins believes Giles used money from the scheme to pay for her defense in the murder case. She learned more than two dozen people had their identities stolen, including other local residents.

Weeks after Giles was sentenced for the murder, in May 2022, she accepted a plea bargain and pleaded guilty to the identity theft charge in East Baton Rouge Parish. Two other charges, government benefits fraud and money laundering, were dropped.

Wiggins said she wasn't notified about the court date or the plea deal.

Here's what identity theft victims should do

Victims of identity theft mostly are left to handle the fallout themselves, as Wiggins has discovered, but there are some steps victims can take to get help.

People should report that their identity has been stolen to the Federal Trade Commission. The agency will want as many details as possible so it can create a personal recovery program for you. Those who create an account can get assistance as they recover, including updated plans and pre-filled forms and letters.

The agency also has another site with tips for those who have had their personal information stolen in data breaches or for those who just want to learn how to better protect their identity.

The Louisiana Department of Revenue has a checklist for victims, including a sample letter for credit bureaus and telephone numbers for the bureaus, Louisiana Office of Motor Vehicles, Workforce Commission and more.

The department also has a link to an affidavit that victims can fill out for help with their taxes.

People also can hire attorneys specializing in identity theft.

Moving forward

Wiggins does have the letter from the Attorney General's Office and a copy of the court minutes in Giles' case to prove that her identity was stolen, but she doesn't believe creditors care about that.

Things have quieted down now, but life certainly is not back to normal.

“No, no, no, I’m not still getting new stuff, but I fight with people all the time about stuff on my credit," she said.

Suing Giles is pointless, she says, because she’s in prison for life and her military benefits can’t be touched. She said that, after all the anguish Giles has inflicted on her family, “she’s still doing it. She don’t quit.”

Giles has "terrorized" her family, she said. She starts to say something, then pauses before saying that Giles "thinks she’s smarter than everybody else," echoing a statement made by prosecutors during her trial's closing arguments.

One thing she does do on a monthly basis now is check her credit reports. But she believes what Giles did will follow her for the rest of her life.

"I’ve sent in the letters," she said about the credit bureaus. "I’ve sent in everything they’ve wanted me to, and it’s still on there.

"I don’t know what else to do."

This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: For Thomas Coutee Jr.'s sister, losses didn't stop after his murder