New Orleans, Louisiana: Jeremiah Williams Convicted of Murder in Killing of Army Reserve Sergeant Frederick Magee Jr.

A jury in Orleans Parish convicted Jeremiah Williams on Friday, October 23 of second-degree murder in the killing of Frederick Magee Jr., a U.S. Army Reserve sergeant who was shot outside a hotel on Tchoupitoulas Street in November 2024, the Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office said. Williams was also convicted of obstruction of justice and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, according to the district attorney's office account reported by WGNO.

The conviction closes the court case over a shooting that took place in the early evening on a Warehouse District street. A co-defendant in the case pleaded guilty earlier in October to helping burn the vehicle used in the killing.

The night on Tchoupitoulas Street

The district attorney's office said officers responded at about 6:30 p.m. on November 3, 2024 to reports of a shooting in the 700 block of Tchoupitoulas Street. Magee was found lying on the sidewalk outside a hotel with multiple gunshot wounds. Emergency medical personnel responded, and Magee was pronounced dead at the scene.

Surveillance footage captured the driver of a black SUV getting out of the vehicle, approaching Magee and opening fire with a rifle, according to the district attorney's office. The shooter kept firing after Magee fell to the ground, then got back into the SUV and fled. Investigators found 12 spent rifle casings at the location.

The burned SUV

Investigators tracked the vehicle to the West Bank, where they found a burned SUV believed to be the one used in the shooting. Through that work, investigators identified Williams as the shooter, the district attorney's office said. The condition of the burned vehicle and the surveillance record became central pieces of the case that ended with Friday's verdict. The district attorney's office account did not describe a motive in the reports reviewed, and no motive is stated here.

The co-defendant's plea

Williams did not face the case alone. His co-defendant, Jerroy Holden, pleaded guilty on October 16 to obstruction of justice. According to the district attorney's office, Holden helped Williams burn the vehicle used in the killing. Holden's plea came one week before the jury returned its verdict against Williams.

Williams now stands convicted on all three counts reported by the district attorney's office: second-degree murder, obstruction of justice, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The WGNO report, published on Wednesday, October 28, did not announce a sentencing date, and the reports reviewed for this article do not state when Williams will be sentenced or what sentence the court will impose. Those decisions remain with the court.

For Magee's family, the verdict arrives almost two years after the November 2024 shooting. The district attorney's office presented the case, and the jury's decision is the final official outcome of the trial itself.