A New Orleans man has been convicted of murdering Army Reserve Sgt. Frederick Magee Jr., who was gunned down outside a Warehouse District hotel nearly two years ago. Jeremiah Williams was found guilty of second-degree murder, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and obstruction of justice in connection with the November 2024 killing, according to the Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office.
Magee, 24, was shot on the 700 block of Tchoupitoulas Street at about 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 3, 2024, as officers responded to reports of gunfire, according to the district attorney's office. As reported by WGNO, Magee was found on the sidewalk outside a hotel with multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. A separate WGNO report on the initial investigation noted that NOPD officers said Magee was the intended target of the shooting.
Investigators said surveillance footage captured the driver of a black SUV exiting the vehicle, approaching Magee and opening fire with a rifle, continuing to shoot even after Magee fell to the ground before fleeing in the same SUV. Police said Williams had waited inside the vehicle for the shooting for more than 20 minutes before Magee arrived, according to an earlier account from nola.com, which also reported that the SUV used in the shooting had been reported stolen.
Casings, a Burned SUV and a Trail to the West Bank
At the scene, investigators recovered 12 spent rifle casings, according to the district attorney's office. Detectives tracked the vehicle used in the shooting to the West Bank and later located a burned SUV believed to have been used in the killing, the same account states. The vehicle had been found burned to its frame on the 1600 block of Brooklyn Avenue, the earlier nola.com report noted.
Jerroy Holden, identified as Williams's co-defendant, was accused of helping Williams burn the vehicle used to flee the homicide scene. Holden pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice seven days earlier, on Oct. 16, the district attorney's office said, in the same case that produced this week's conviction against Williams.
A Prior Case Involved a Criminal-Threat Plea
Williams was not unknown to prosecutors before Magee's killing. The Center Square reported that Williams had previously pleaded guilty to criminal trespassing and that a firearm-related charge would be dismissed.
That same report, citing a Metropolitan Crime Commission analysis, found that the felony arrest-to-conviction rate in Orleans Parish fell from 44% in 2019 under former District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro to 20% in 2022 under District Attorney Jason Williams. The commission also found that Jason Williams dismissed 1,859 open felony prosecutions during his first year in office, and that 25% of defendants whose cases were dismissed in 2021 were later rearrested on new felony charges by the end of 2023, according to The Center Square. The same report noted that the district attorney's office has said it refused nearly 40% of felony cases over the prior year, even as New Orleans Police Department data showed murders down 3% from 2024 and fatal shootings down 21%.
What Comes Next
Under Louisiana law, second-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment at hard labor without the possibility of parole, probation or suspension of sentence, according to the Louisiana Legislature. State law separately defines obstruction of justice as conduct committed with knowledge that it will affect a criminal, civil immigration or other official proceeding, per the Louisiana Legislature's obstruction statute.
Williams now awaits sentencing. The case closes a chapter in a killing that stunned the Warehouse District nearly two years ago, when an Army Reserve sergeant was ambushed on a city sidewalk in what investigators determined was a targeted attack.
