Frickey convicted of killing

Rejecting the argument that Darby Frickey was acting in self-defense on Oct. 5, 2011, when he killed Mark Berthelot, a jury deliberated about 45 minutes and decided Frickey was guilty of second-degree murder as charged Thursday.
Second degree murder carries an automatic sentence of life in prison in Louisiana without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence. Sixteenth Judicial District Judge Edward Leonard Jr. told jurors they could choose a lesser charge such as manslaughter, if second-degree murder was not proven. Leonard will sentence Frickey on June 20.
Bo Duhé, first assistant district attorney for the 16th Judicial District, said in a news release, “The district attorney’s office is grateful for the jury’s commitment in reaching a just verdict in this case for the family and friends of the victim. Additionally, I am very proud of assistant district attorney, Tony Saleme, the staff of the district attorney’s office, the St. Mary Parish sheriff’s office and coroner’s office for their hard work and dedication.”
Philip House, lead defense attorney, said after the decision, “We always respect what a jury has to do ... They had a tough job. We presented a lot of compelling testimony that Darby Frickey acted in self-defense. We respect the jury’s decision but do not agree with it.”
The state contended Frickey walked home from work one day on a lunch break and killed Berthelot while he slept.
Frickey, 40, claimed he was acting in self-defense when he killed Berthelot, 38, stuffed the victim’s body into an ice chest and subsequently dumped the ice chest in a ditch near a cane field off La. 317 near Bayou Sale.
The family of the victim declined to comment on the case.
Frickey’s family members declined comment after the verdict was returned. Frickey’s mother said minutes after the jury retired to deliberate, that her son had never been in legal trouble before, was a good father, had provided for his family for many years and was not the bad person he had been portrayed.
After spending two days painting the victim as an unsavory character, defense attorney Robby Gill, resumed the attack and contrasted Frickey with Berthelot.
“I have an innocent client over here who I don’t want to go to Angola for the rest of his life,” Gill said. Frickey had worked every day for many years while Mark Berthelot … moves his meth lab through St. Mary Parish from house to house to house ... and is fleeing from arrest when he goes to Darby Frickey’s house.”
Assistant District Attorney Anthony Saleme said during the trial “you heard a pretty good smear campaign on Mark Berthelot … No matter how bad a person they painted Mark Berthelot to be he didn’t deserve the ending he got.”
Saleme said there was no testimony that Frickey was scared of Berthelot prior to the killing.
“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. “If he was genuinely afraid, he certainly did not conduct himself like he was.”
The victim was “physically fit,” but no taller than 5-foot-7, Saleme said.
“But listening to Mr. Frickey, I would have sworn (Berthelot) was a giant ... For being as tough and violent and a good fighter as he was (described by Frickey in his statements), the defendant manhandled him,” Saleme said. “The defendant did not have a hand laid on him, no marks.”
Saleme reminded the jurors of the violent way Berthelot was killed.
“You all saw the pictures. A tool mark in the back of the head and the whole left side of his face just collapsed ... 15 to 20 blows. Think about that. Mr. Frickey said ‘He was still moving around and making noise so I took a Buck knife and cut his throat’ ... He said, ‘I had to kill him or he would come after me later or my family.’ Does that sound like imminent danger?”
“Don’t buy into the argument that he killed in self-defense ... He didn’t do that because he was scared of the Berthelot family, but because he was scared of what was waiting for him in the criminal justice system. And that time has come,” Saleme said.
Gill attacked the key state witness in his closing arguments.
Jeff Conerly, a casual acquaintance of Frickey, told detectives that he was called by Frickey to come from Houma to use drugs with him and Frickey then asked him to help dispose of Berthelot’s body in exchange for drugs and money. It was Conerly who said Frickey told him he killed Berthelot while he slept.
When Frickey confessed to the killing, he said Conerly walked in unannounced and caught him “red-handed” trying to put Berthelot’s body, which had been in the mobile home for two days, into an ice chest.
Gill asked, “They did not pull records to prove this SOB is telling the truth? (Saleme) wants to send my client away for the rest of his life over Jeff Conerly? He would say whatever the hell he had to say. He got out of an accessory after the fact and obstruction of justice charge.”
Gill questioned bringing the ice chest into the courtroom and the display of the gruesome photographs.
“They want to work on your emotion and sympathy but sympathy will put a man in Angola for rest of his life for something he did not do,” Gill said.
Saleme closed the trial by asking the jury to “find Darby Frickey guilty of second-degree murder because the state has proved it … and because it is the right thing to do.”