Frickey’s sentence delayed

Darby Frickey’s sentencing for the Oct. 5, 2011, killing of Mark Berthelot in Bayou Vista, was delayed so that motions filed by Phillip House, Frickey’s attorney, can be heard Aug. 11.
A crowd of Berthelot’s family and friends gathered outside the courthouse and said they were ready for the next court hearing.
House’s motions request a new trial and for 16th Judicial District Judge Edward Leonard Jr. to consider all the evidence and determine if there was a legal basis for the guilty verdict.
Frickey’s attorney said, outside the courtroom, that the motions filed claim there is a witness to one of the jurors drinking alcohol during a break in the trial in a Franklin restaurant. He said that it is illegal for jurors to drink alcoholic beverages while a trial is ongoing and they are serving on that jury.
House had also previously filed a motion challenging the constitutionality of Louisiana’s automatic life sentence for second-degree murder.
Berthelot’s daughters Marquee Berthelot, 20, and Lexes Berthelot, 19, were present for the proceedings along with about 20 other supporters of the Berthelot family. The last time the daughters saw their father alive was three days before his murder when Berthelot saw his one-week old granddaughter, Khyla, for the first time, according to Marquee Berthelot.
Marquee Berthelot discussed the final parting.
“I kissed him goodbye and said I love him. He said he will see me again soon and spend more time with my baby,” she said. “He was looking forward to being a grandpa.”
While the family was pleased to see Frickey convicted, Lexes Berthelot said that it was not a closure. “He is still gone. Nothing will bring him back,” she said of her father.
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.
The state contended Frickey picked up a pipe as he walked home from work one day on a lunch break, bludgeoned Berthelot, 38, and slit his throat while he slept.
Defense attorney Robby Gill attacked the credibility of the state’s star witness, Jeff Connerly, a casual acquaintance of Frickey, who said Frickey told him how he killed Berthelot.
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. Connerly said Frickey told him that he picked up a metal rod before entering the house and killed Berthelot while the victim slept on the couch.
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. Connerly was arrested the next day on an unrelated burglary charge.
Berthelot’s body was eventually found inside the ice chest by sugar cane 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 for a while. 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.
“He lost his mind and he swung at me,” with a punch that would have “hospitalized me” had it landed, Frickey said
Frickey said he “waylaid” Berthelot with a stainless steel pipe he had grabbed from the floor. He said in his confession that he hit Berthelot 15 to 20 times with the pipe and then to make sure he was dead, he slit Berthelot’s throat so he could not seek retribution later.
Police testified they decided not to charge Connerly due to the nightmares he said he had over the issue and believing Connerly was intimidated into helping Frickey.
Mary Manhein director of FACES Laboratory at LSU testified Berthelot’s jaw was split in two and his skull shattered. The Forensic Anthropology and Computer Enhancement Services provide identification services for law enforcement. She presented a diagram reproduction of the skull showing dozens of fractures and pieces missing.
St. Mary Parish Coroner Dr. Francis Metz Jr. said at least three or four of the indentions in the skull would have been fatal — “inconsistent with life.” He was about 90 percent certain the slit throat was “inconsistent with life.”
Assistant district attorney Anthony 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.