NEW ORLEANS — The trial of three teenagers accused of killing a New Orleans woman during a violent carjacking is on hold.
The Louisiana Supreme Court issued a stay order in the Linda Frickey murder case, pausing jury selection shortly after it started Monday morning.
About 100 potential jurors were sent home, about an hour after filing into a courtroom at Orleans Parish Criminal Court.
The high court paused the trial to decide whether the trial Judge Kimya Holmes erred in not granting a petition by both the prosecution and defense to continue the trial date.
Loyola Law Professor Dane Ciolino called the stay and the judge’s decision not to grant the continuance, unusual.
“In the vast majority of cases if both the DA and the defense lawyers are requesting a continuance, the judge is going to grant it,” Ciolino said. “And, for the Supreme Court to step in to review a denial of a motion to continue is also a very odd thing for that court to do.”
The 73-year-old Frickey was carjacked in Mid-City last March.
She died after her arm got caught in a seatbelt and it was severed as the car pulled off.
Three teenagers John Honore, 18, Briniyah Baker, 16, and Mar’Qel Curtis are charged with second-degree murder.
Lenyra Theophile, 17, is also charged in the case.
She will not be part of the initial trial after having been found incompetent.
Frickey’s sister Jinny Griffin told WWL-TV, they are saddened about the pause in the trial and hopeful the Supreme Court will deny the continuance and the trial can finally get started later this week.
“We’re going to go (to court),” Griffin said. “We’re going to go there. We’re going to make sure she gets justice. We’re going to be in the courts. We’re going to be demanding justice.”
Judge Holmes told attorneys if the high court denies the writ, be ready to go immediately into jury selection.
If justices grant the continuance, she said be prepared to come back to court and pick a new trial date.
“The court in this sort of situation generally wouldn’t grant the writ to review or grant the stay unless it was going to take a serious look at this and more likely than not, reverse the district judge and grant the continuance,” Professor Ciolino said.
Again, the issue now before the Supreme Court centers on the legal question of whether the trial judge went beyond her discretion in denying a continuance…even though it was requested by both the defense and prosecution.
It’s unclear when the high court plans to take up the writ.
“For us, we feel the two in the front seat should have a lifetime in jail,” Frickey's sister, Jinny Lynn Griffin said.
This is a developing story. Stay with WWL-TV for updates as new information becomes available.
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