By Robert A. Waters
Like jackals, they surrounded the silver Nissan mini-van as Linda Frickey waited inside. There was Lenyra Theophile, 15; Mar'quel Curtis, 15; Briniyah Baker, 16; and the leader of the pack, John Honore, 17. Surveillance video from home cameras captured the teens circling their prey.
On March 21, 2022, the normally peaceful community on Beinville Street in New Orleans was decidedly middle-class, in the best sense of the word. Residents worked for what they had, and kept their homes looking nice. Linda, employed as an agent for Security Plan Life Insurance Company, had given her employers 28 years of service. Friendly, positive, outgoing, Linda had made long-lasting friends with many of her customers.
Closing in, Honore nonchalantly sidled up to the driver's side door. Suddenly, he yanked it open, surprising his victim. Before Linda could move, Honore whipped out a can of pepper spray and drenched her. Then he punched her in the face several times for good measure. Linda could not fight back. As Honore tugged at her, trying to get Linda out of the car, the other three predators piled into the vehicle.
Linda finally fell onto the asphalt, and Honore deliberately stomped on her face before climbing into the driver's seat. During the assault, Linda's right arm got caught in the seat belt, part of which hung outside the car.
Jillian Kramer, staff writer for NOLA.com, described what happened next.
"Honore got into the vehicle and drove...Frickey, tangled in the driver's seatbelt, was dragged alongside the SUV for the length of nearly two football fields.
"From her front yard on Beinville Street, Leanne Mascar watched as [Frickey] flapped on the side of the vehicle.
"Then I heard this voice: 'Let me go,' Mascar said.
"'Honore was trying to dislodge this person like a piece of trash had stuck to the car,' she said.
"He drove the vehicle over a curb. There a utility pole cable ripped Frickey's arm from her body. Mascar said she ran to Frickey, who was awake, face up, her clothes ripped from her body.
"'My first thought was where is all the blood?' Mascar testified. 'There was no blood.'
"She covered Frickey with a pink and white sheet. With her husband, Marc, and several others who had gathered, Mascar prayed over Frickey. 'Time was going slowly,' Mascar recalled."
Paramedics arrived just in time to watch Linda die. Forensic pathologist Erin O'Sullivan stated that Linda had suffered the following injuries: fractured ribs, vertebrae and collarbone, a torn aorta, and head bleeding. She also had her arm severed from her body. She might have died from any of those injuries, according to O'Sullivan.
Within hours, the parents of two of the assailants turned them in, and those two ratted out the others. Honore had driven the car a mere two miles before abandoning it.
Linda had many family members in the area. After such a brutal attack, her family, including her husband of 36 years, called on the system to render justice. But justice in America does not often come easily, especially when those committing crimes are juveniles.
In 2023, Honore chose to face a jury while his cohorts pled guilty to reduced charges of second-degree murder. Baker, Theophile, and Curtis received 20 years in prison. Honore was convicted, also of second-degree murder. The judge sentenced him to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years. (He will be 42 years old at that time.)
According to my research, the three accomplices might serve 85% of their time before being released. That means they will be in their early thirties when they're freed to bring more misery to residents of the Big Easy.
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