Trial of the four high-school aged juveniles charged in the killing of 73-year-old Linda Frickey during a car-jacking will get underway Monday.
Frickey was dragged alongside her SUV until her arm was pulled off and left to die in the middle of Bienville Street.
Among the defendants, two are below the age to drive a car and one is so physically small the Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate reports she is not tall enough to reach a grown man’s shoulders.
The Frickey case has prompted scorching calls of outrage and underscored the New Orleans Police Department’s inability to protect the city from skyrocketing rates of carjackings, murders, and violent crimes.
Still more people are demanding the juveniles received the highest and harshest punishment under the justice system and again sparked debate on how the system treats juvenile crimes committing violent crimes.
As the justice system spools up to hold the trial, the lead teenager, John Honore has been transferred to the adult lockup at the Orleans Justice Center has his 18th birthday was Friday and he is not an adult.
Honore, 17, Briniyah Baker, 16, and Mar’Qel Curtis, 15 have all pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder charges.
Only defendant Lenyra Theophile, 17, will not be in the courtroom as she has been found incompetent to stand trial at this time.
The way in which Frickey died was so heinous that Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams abandoned his promise not to charge juveniles as adults, speaking out in this case stating: “I know that there are some in this community who will absolutely say that I am wrong for charging these four young people as adults. I say it was wrong of them to prey on and kill one of our elders.”
In predicting an outcome in the case, son Darrell Frickey has stated if the juveniles are found guilty but escape a significant sentence, the people will feel the criminal justice system is not protecting the public.