Tag: kidnapping

William Frye sentenced to 65 years for bank robbery, carjacking and kidnapping

A Jefferson Parish judge on Wednesday (Oct. 9) sentenced William Frye to 65 years in prison for his convictions of robbing a Jefferson bank and then forcibly taking a grandmother’s car with her 18-year-old daughter in the back seat as he made his getaway.

Frye, 47, was convicted as charged last month of two counts of simple robbery, carjacking and second-degree kidnapping in connection with the Nov. 30, 2022 crimes.

“I do believe you’re a menace to the good people of Jefferson Parish,” 24th Judicial District Court Judge Frank Brindisi told Frye. “On that day, you were a one-man crime wave. You terrorized everybody.”

Click here to read about the trial.

Frye entered the bank branch in the 3600 block of Jefferson Highway about 1:15 p.m., threatening to harm the tellers if they did not give him cash. He fled on foot with cash and carjacked the woman and her two grandchildren outside a business in the 3500 block of Berwick Street.

The teen who was in the back seat of that vehicle jumped out a back door and suffered a broken pelvis as she landed in the street.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office detectives and FBI agents tracked Frye to an Airline Drive motel and arrested him later that day.

Frye’s criminal history dates back to the early 1990s and includes a conviction in federal court of robbing the same bank branch he was convicted of robbing last month, the judge noted said before announcing his sentencing, citing a pre-sentencing memorandum.

“I don’t think you can be rehabilitated,” Judge Brindisi told Frye. “I think you’re an incorrigible criminal.”

Judge Brindisi sentenced Frye to 35 years for the kidnapping, 20 years for the carjacking and five years for each of the two simple robbery counts. He ran the sentences consecutively, for a total of 65 years.

Assistant District Attorneys Eric Cusimano and Taylor Somerville prosecuted the case.

 

 

William Frye guilty in Jefferson bank robbery, carjacking, kidnapping

A Jefferson Parish jury deliberated less than an hour on Wednesday evening (Sept. 25) in finding William Frye guilty of robbing a Jefferson Highway bank before forcibly taking a car from a nearby family and speeding away with a teenager in the back seat.

Frye, 47, of Jefferson’s Shrewsbury neighborhood, was convicted as charged of two counts of simple robbery, carjacking and second-degree kidnapping.

Wearing a hooded shirt and erratically waving a white pillowcase, Frye stormed into a bank branch in the 3600 block of Jefferson Highway at about 1:15 p.m., on Nov. 30, 2022, threatening deadly violence and demanding that the tellers turn over cash.

He threw the pillowcase at two tellers, ordering them both to fill it. They complied. He then fled on foot, dumping his gloves, the pillowcase and the hoodie in a Sizeler Avenue back yard before hopping a resident’s fence and emerging in the 3500 block of Berwick Street.

At that time, a woman and two family members arrived at a Berwick Street business. The woman alone had exited the car but left the engine running. Frye jumped into the driver’s seat, rebuffing another family member’s attempts to physically remove him.

Frye sped away with an 18-year-old woman in the back seat. About 25 yards away, the terrified teenager jumped out of a back door, breaking her pelvis and she hit the roadway.

After striking a parked car and continuing, Frye abandoned the car less than a mile away, at Scott Street and Saia Lane. The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, which launched a manhunt that included the agency’s helicopter, quickly obtained information identifying Frye as the suspect.

Detectives and FBI agents tracked Frye to a motel in the 5700 block of Airline Drive, where he had been renting a room. After conducting surveillance, agents located Frye walking out of the room. When he saw the law enforcement officers, Frye fled on foot. He was captured a short distance away.

Frye left the motel that morning, telling the manager he would pay for his room that day but that he had to go to the bank, first. Detectives later obtained images from the motel’s security system of Frye leaving the business that morning. He wore the same clothing as the robber.

In Frye’s pocket when he was arrested, detectives found cash that was directly linked to what was stolen from the bank. In the motel room he occupied, detectives found cash stuffed under the mattress. One of the white pillowcases was missing.

Further, the Sheriff’s Office Crime Lab found Frye’s DNA on the steering wheel of the car he stole and in one of the gloves he wore during the robbery, which he dumped in the Sizeler Avenue backyard.

From her hospital room, where she underwent surgery, the teenaged kidnapping victim read an online news report about the bank robbery that included Frye’s booking mugshot. She alerted detectives, confirming that Frye was the carjacker.

Frye denied committing the crimes. His attorney argued that the Sheriff’s Office arrested the wrong suspect.

The jury, which was seated Tuesday and heard two days of testimony, deliberated 49 minutes before returning with its unanimous verdicts.

Judge Frank Brindisi of the 24th Judicial District Court is scheduled to sentence Frye on Wednesday (Oct. 2).

Assistant District Attorneys Eric Cusimano and Taylor Somerville prosecuted the case.

Marital infidelity, a Kenner hookup and a kidnapping lead to prison for a North Carolina couple

A Jefferson Parish judge has sentenced Mishanda Reed to 11 years for prison for her involvement in the kidnapping of her extramarital lover in Kenner, a week after her husband Malcom Reed was sentenced to 13 years for the same crime.

Malcom Reed, 42, and Mishanda Reed, 45, both of Durham, N.C., were convicted of second-degree kidnapping and attempted second-degree kidnapping, respectively, by a Jefferson Parish jury on Sept. 28.

Mishanda Reed and the victim, now age 47 and living in Houston, Texas, attended Xavier University in New Orleans together in 1995 and dated for about five years. They had had a sexual encounter in recent years, after she was married.

In 2021, they communicated, and she told the victim – falsely – that she was divorced. On June 27, 2021, after the victim traveled to the New Orleans area to meet her, he drove to an airbnb that she rented with her credit card in the 1300 block of Lloyd Price Avenue in Kenner.

Inside, the victim walked to an upper-level loft. There, the victim said, Malcom Reed suddenly appeared, carrying a silver semiautomatic pistol in his left hand and an aluminum bat in the other. He ordered the victim to get on his knees. When the victim refused, Malcom Reed beat him with the bat.

Malcom Reed ordered Mishanda Reed to retrieve zip-ties, which he had in a bag. She did, and she used them to bind the victim at the wrists and ankles.

Malcom Reed then got the password to the victim’s cell phone and scrolled through the text messages between the victim and Mishanda Reed. Malcom Reed interrogated the victim about his intentions with his wife. Malcom Reed also pointed the pistol at the victim and threatened to kill him. Malcom Reed also cut the victim’s face during the interrogation.

Several hours later, the Reeds left the airbnb in separate cars, taking the victim with them. The Reeds removed the zip-ties from the victim’s wrists and ankles and left him in the 300 block of Alliance Street. The Reeds then drove to North Carolina.

A bystander saw the victim bleeding in the street and called 911. The Kenner Police Department arrived soon after, and the victim was rushed to a hospital for injuries that included a broken leg.

Police officers who searched the airbnb found blood spattered on the stair railing, a mirror, bed sheets, a door and elsewhere. Detectives identified the Reeds and obtained arrest warrants. The Reeds surrendered on Aug. 1, 2021.

The couple additionally was charged with aggravated battery. But jurors convicted Malcom Reed of the lesser misdemeanor charge of simple battery and acquitted Mishanda Reed of that crime altogether. Malcom Reed was sentenced to six months in jail for that offense.

Although the Reeds were tried and convicted together, they were sentenced separately.

During Malcom Reed’s sentencing hearing on Oct. 13, he expressed remorse but minimized his involvement by telling the court that he learned only that day that his wife was having an affair. He said he hid outside the Airbnb for 1 ½ hours and then, armed with the bat, confronted the victim inside. He said he was defending himself when explaining why he struck the victim with the bat.

The victim, in victim-impact testimony on Oct. 13, described the entire incident as “a premediated ambush” that included Mishanda Reed’s participation. He said he suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome because of the kidnapping and beating he received.

On Friday (Oct. 20), Mishanda Reed testified during her request for a new trial, presenting herself as a victim as well and saying she was not a willing participant in the kidnapping because she was frightened of her husband. From the witness stand and with her husband looking on, she admitted being an adulterous wife but asserted she loves both men. Mishanda Reed also complained that her trial lawyer, whom she has fired since she was convicted, steered her away from testifying.

In rejecting the new-trial request, Judge Shayna Beevers Morvant of the 24th Judicial District Court described Mishanda Reed’s testimony given Friday as “theatrical and full of hysteria.” Judge Beevers Morvant said Mishanda Reed had numerous opportunities to flee from her husband if she was, in fact, not a willing participant in the crime.

“I do not think she wants to face liability for the jury’s verdict,” the judge said in denying the new-trial motion.

Assistant District Attorneys Matthew Whitworth and Blaine Moncrief prosecuted the case.