One of four teen defendants in Linda Frickey murder case deemed incompetent for trial

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - On the eve of the one-year anniversary of Linda Frickey’s horrific dragging death during a Mid-City carjacking, one of the four teen defendants accused of her murder was deemed incompetent to stand trial.

Orleans Parish Criminal District Judge Kimya Holmes made the ruling Monday (March 20) after hearing testimony from a court-appointed psychiatrist. The doctor’s diagnosis was that 16-year-old Lenyra Theophile would be unable to participate in her own defense without additional mental health care.

Holmes ordered Theophile to be remanded to Northlake Behavioral Health System -- a psychiatric facility in Mandeville -- for treatment, over the objection of defense attorney Gregory Carter. Holmes scheduled another mental competency hearing for Theophile on May 19.

Meanwhile, Theophile’s three co-defendants -- 18-year-old John Honore, 16-year-old Briniyah Baker and 15-year-old Mar’Qel Curtis -- remain scheduled to be tried as adults for second-degree murder starting April 3.

Related coverage

• ‘She was screaming to please let her go,’ Neighbors recount brutal, violent Mid-City carjacking that killed a woman
• 4 teens accused of carjacking, dragging woman to death will be tried as adults, D.A. announces
• Frickey’s accused killers plead not guilty in dragging death
• Attorneys for Frickey murder suspects strike out in latest court hearing
• Judge holds firm on trial date for four teens accused in Linda Frickey’s death

The four defendants have pleaded not guilty to the murder of Frickey, who died one year ago Tuesday.

Frickey, 72, was carjacked by four people who attacked her as she sat in her car near North Scott and Bienville streets around 1:30 p.m. on March 21, 2022.

Frickey’s arm became entangled in her seat belt as she was pushed out of the driver’s seat and she was dragged down Bienville until her arm was severed and she bled to death on the street.

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