NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — A pre-trial hearing was held in the Linda Frickey case on Friday, May 19 to determine if the defense can bring in an expert to discuss juvenile brain development.

Linda Frickey was fatally dismembered and killed during a carjacking in Mid-City on March 21, 2022. Four people, who were all teenagers at the time of her death, are scheduled to be tried in 2024.

The defense requested on Friday to have an expert explain juvenile brain development during the trial. However, the state is trying to block that request.

The state argued that since the defendants pled not guilty, they couldn’t plead insanity during the trial.

Frickey’s family attended the hearing and made a statement afterward.

“They knew. Then, they had the audacity to beat her. Then he pulls away, she’s hooked to the car. They got to the corner, they could’ve stopped, they could’ve jumped out. They could’ve done something. They didn’t do anything. They got out the car at the end. They didn’t call 911. Were they thinking about 911? Hell no. They were thinking about ‘let’s have a party, we just killed somebody’,” said a family member.

The judge also gave both the state and the defense a March 18 deadline to have all DNA evidence ready for trial. She is expected to make a ruling on the expert request and hold a competency hearing for Lanyra Theophile on Thursday, May 25.

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