Frickey gets life sentence

After rejecting defense motions, including one for a new trial, 16th Judicial District Judge Edward Leonard Jr. sentenced Darby Frickey Jr., 40, to life in prison for the Oct. 5, 2011, killing of Mark Berthelot, 38, in Bayou Vista.
Phillip House, attorney for Frickey, had submitted a new trial motion on the grounds of juror misconduct.
House and Anthony Saleme, assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case, agreed to a stipulation of fact that Frickey’s mother would testify she saw a juror with a beer in his hand during a trial lunch break on May 7, both attorneys said.
The juror asserted his Fifth Amendment right to not testify after Leonard explained to him that drinking alcohol while serving as a juror is a criminal offense, Saleme said.
The issue is likely to be brought again during the appeal process, House said. His motion for a post-judgment acquittal was also denied by Leonard.
Jurors deliberated about 45 minutes on May 8, after two-and-a-half days of testimony. Rejecting a self-defense justification, Frickey was convicted of second-degree murder as charged. Second-degree murder carries an automatic sentence of life in prison in Louisiana without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence.
House had previously filed a motion challenging the constitutionality of Louisiana’s automatic life sentence for second-degree murder. That motion was also denied.
House said the prosecution was extremely professional and the judge had made every reasonable accommodation during what was a “serious and difficult trial.”
Frickey, who did not testify, confessed to police of killing Berthelot after the victim’s body was found inside an ice chest by sugarcane farmers on Nov. 18, 2011. Frickey was arrested Dec. 5, 2011.
Frickey said in a recorded confession that he had been ordering Berthelot out of his home. He came home from work for lunch on the day of the killing and found Berthelot still in his house and they argued and began to fight. Frickey said he “waylaid” Berthelot with a stainless steel pipe he grabbed from the floor. Frickey said he hit Berthelot 15 to 20 times with the pipe and then to make sure he was dead, he slit Berthelot’s throat to prevent future retribution.
Jeff Connerly, a casual acquaintance of Frickey, said Frickey told him how he killed Berthelot, and it was not in self-defense.
Connerly testified Frickey called him to come from Houma to use drugs with him and then asked him to help dispose of Berthelot’s body. Frickey told him that he picked up a metal object before entering the mobile home and killed Berthelot while the victim slept on the couch, Connerly testified.
Connerly said he helped Frickey stuff the body into an ice chest that was eventually dumped in a ditch near a cane field off La. 317 near Bayou Sale. After helping Frickey, Connerly was arrested the next day on an unrelated burglary charge in Houma.
Saleme told jurors in closing arguments that the self-defense argument was not believable.
“It was only after he killed him, put him in an ice chest and put him in a cane field, that Frickey claimed to be scared of Berthelot,” Saleme said. He made that claim “because he was scared of what was waiting for him in the criminal justice system. And that time has come,” Saleme told jurors.
Before his murder trial, Frickey was arrested for inciting to riot and criminal damage to property in a March 2 incident at St. Mary Parish Law Enforcement Center. He was accused of encouraging about 25 inmates to take over a room they were being held in, which led prison officials to use Tasers and chemical spray to subdue the inmates.