Trial was set to begin today for three of the four teenagers charged with second degree murder in the carjacking and death of 73-year-old Linda Frickey. They allegedly took the elderly woman's car at gunpoint, then dragged her down the street until her arm, entangled in the seatbelt, ripped from her body.
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The youngsters are all being tried as adults.
It's not the first time New Orleans District Attorney Jason Williams has charged juveniles as adults, but it is one of the most high-profile instances of him going back on a campaign promise never to do that. Gambit political columnist Clancy DuBos says Williams has learned some lessons since taking office.
"I think he's growing into the job," said DuBos. "There's an old saying that (New York Governor) Mario Cuomo often used: 'Candidates campaign in poetry but govern in prose.'"
DuBos says campaigning and prosecuting criminals in New Orleans and two very different things.
"When candidates get into office and they get into the job, and they kind of get they're sea legs under them, they realize that a lot of the promises they made don't match with the reality sometimes," said DuBos.
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But will this hurt him when he's up for reelection?
"I think he will still maintain a high level of support with progressives, and I think he will win over some doubters," DuBos said. "I think he will still maintain a high level of support with progressives, and I think he will win over some doubters."
Williams has been in office a little more than two years of a six-year term.
A fourth defendant has been ruled not mentally competent to stand trial, and is undergoing court-ordered psychiatric treatment until she is.