Update: 2:00pm:
The lone hold out in the Linda Frickey case has been found competent will stand trial along side three other suspects when the case goes before a judge.
Lenyra Theophile was initially ruled incompetent.
She spent 60-days at a mental health facility.
Today, Criminal District Court Judge Kimya Holmes declared Theophile is in fact competent, based on the testimony of three doctors who decided she is fit to stand trial.
The Frickey case centers on the actions of the four defendants who carjacked Frickey, who became entangled in her seatbelt and dragged for a city block, severing her arm in the process.
Initially Theophile and defendant Mar’Qel Curtis were reviewed to see if they could stand trial. Both have now been found competent after findings by court-appointed psychiatrists.
The four defendants: John Honore, Briniyah Baker, Mar’Qel Curtis, and Lenyra Theophile will now stand trial for second degree murder.
The judge presiding over the murder trial of four defendants in the carjacking and murder of 73-year-old Linda Frickey in Mid-City last year has a status hearing today, and is expected to rule on an unusual defense request.
The defense has asked to present an expert witness on juvenile brain development to make an argument that the defendants, all teenagers, didn't have the intent to kill Linda Frickey. Loyola law professor Dane Ciolino said its a very unusual request.
"Typically, mental health evidence is not admissible in a criminal trial, unless the defendants enter a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity," he explained.
Ciolino said that is not the plea these defendants have entered, although they could change it.
The judge is also set to get an update on defendant Lenyra Theophile. The judge ruled Theophile not mentally competent to stand trial. Theophile has been receiving mental health treatment until the judge is satisfied she understands what is happening.
"Once competence is restored, the defendant is sent back to court for pretrial and trial proceedings," Ciolino said.
Frickey's family have complained about the delays in the case. The actual trial is still months away, but Loyola Ciolino says there is nothing unusual.
"This case is not proceeding any more slowly than the typical case at Tulane and Broad," he said.