The legal counsel for Landon Broussard, the 23-year-old Lafayette man accused of raping and killing his girlfriend’s 3-year-old son in 2012, is asking that he be transferred from Angola back to Lafayette while he awaits trial.

Prosecutors in the 15th Judicial District are seeking the death penalty in the case.

Broussard was indicted March 27, 2013, on one count of first-degree murder and one count of aggravated rape in the death of Julian Madera.

Madera’s mother, Laura Smith, pleaded guilty last year to one count of cruelty to a juvenile.

In a motion filed Feb. 13, Broussard’s legal team asked that their client be transferred from the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola because “excess of two to three hours in travel time is interfering with his ability to prepare a defense…”

The commute is a violation of Broussard’s constitutional rights, the motion said.

“Because of the seriousness of the charges facing Mr. Broussard, undersigned counsel feels that it is imperative that the defendant be transferred back to Lafayette Parish and held in the Lafayette Parish Correctional Center pending final resolution of the charges in Lafayette Parish,” his attorneys J. Clay Lejeune, Elliott Thomas Brown and Kim Hayes said in the most recent court document filed in the case.

A trial date has not yet been set.

Madera died in November 2012. Authorities found more than 25 injuries on the boy’s body, including a split lip and abrasions on his genitals. According to the autopsy report, Madera died from severe blunt-force trauma.

During an interview with detectives, Broussard blamed a fallen door for the child’s injuries.

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