After three decades of legal battles, former New Orleans police officer Antoinette Frank is facing execution for the brutal 1995 triple murder that shook the city and 𝓮𝔁𝓹𝓸𝓼𝓮𝓭 deep institutional failures within the New Orleans Police Department.
A Louisiana judge has signed a death warrant for Frank, 54, the only woman on the state’s death row, following the exhaustion of her final appeals. The execution is scheduled for early next year, according to court documents obtained exclusively by this newsroom.
Frank was convicted in 1995 for the murders of fellow NOPD officer Ronald Austin Williams II, 25, and siblings Ha Vu, 24, and Quang Vu, 17, inside the Kim On restaurant in New Orleans East. She was working an off-duty security detail at the time and used her badge and gun to commit the robbery that turned into a massacre.
The case has haunted New Orleans for 30 years. Frank, then a 24-year-old rookie officer, orchestrated the heist with her teenage lover, Rogers Lacaze, a known 𝒹𝓇𝓊𝑔 dealer she had met on a call months earlier. She stole the restaurant key, entered after closing, and shot the victims execution-style.
What made the crime particularly chilling was Frank’s response after the murders. She drove to the 7th District police station, then heard the dispatch for an officer down at the restaurant she had just left. She returned to the scene, stood among responding officers in full uniform, and pretended to be a fellow officer arriving to help.
Chau Vu, one of the survivors who hid in a walk-in cooler, later identified Frank to investigators. “She was there. She knew what happened,” Chau told detectives that night.
Frank’s shifting story quickly unraveled under questioning, and she admitted to shooting the two teenagers while blaming Lacaze for the officer’s death.
The jury deliberated for just 22 minutes before finding Frank guilty on three counts of first-degree murder. The same jury recommended death after 45 minutes of deliberation. Judge Frank Marullo formally sentenced her to lethal injection on October 20, 1995.
For decades, Frank’s appeals focused on her traumatic childhood and allegations of severe 𝓪𝓫𝓾𝓼𝓮 by her father, a Vietnam veteran with a history of violence. VA records from 1973 documented that her father admitted to physically harming her as a toddler, yet child welfare officials never removed her from the home.
Three independent psychiatrists later diagnosed Frank with PTSD and dependent personality disorder, directly linking her psychological condition to prolonged childhood 𝓪𝓫𝓾𝓼𝓮. Two jurors from her trial later submitted sworn affidavits stating they would have voted for life imprisonment had they heard that evidence.
Despite those appeals, Louisiana courts repeatedly upheld her conviction and death sentence. In 2023, Governor John Bel Edwards publicly opposed capital punishment, but a clemency hearing for Frank ended in a tied vote, denying her request.
The legal landscape shifted dramatically this year. In 2025, Louisiana carried out its first execution in 15 years, signaling a renewed willingness to enforce capital punishment. Frank’s post-conviction appeal remained active, but on Monday, the Louisiana Supreme Court rejected her final petition, clearing the way for an execution date.
Attorney General Jeff Landry’s office, which fought to take over the case from Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams, successfully argued that Frank’s claims of ineffective counsel and suppressed evidence had been properly litigated and denied.
“The victims’ families have waited 30 years for justice,” Landry said in a statement. “Antoinette Frank is a cold-blooded killer who betrayed her badge and her oath. The law will now be carried out.”
Ronald Williams Sr. , father of the slain officer, has attended every court hearing for three decades. He was present when the latest ruling was read.
“I’m relieved,” he told reporters outside the courthouse. “My son never got to see his kids grow up. Now maybe we can finally close this chapter.”
Chau Vu, now in her 50s, has rarely spoken publicly about the night that changed her family’s life. She testified at every major hearing. She said she still struggles with the memory of watching Frank 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 her siblings.
“I just want it to be over,” she said.
The Kim On restaurant, rebuilt twice after the murders and again after Hurricane Katrina, now operates in Harahan under the leadership of Bich Vu, the family patriarch. He declined to comment on the execution, citing the pain it reopens.
Frank’s defense team has vowed to pursue a last-minute stay from federal courts, arguing that the state’s execution protocol is unconstitutional and that new DNA evidence could exonerate her. Lead counsel Nyla Campbell said the team will file an emergency petition with the U. S.
Supreme Court.
“There is overwhelming evidence that Ms. Frank was a victim of unimaginable 𝓪𝓫𝓾𝓼𝓮 and that her trial was fundamentally flawed,” Campbell said. “Executing her would be a grave miscarriage of justice.”
But prosecutors remain steadfast. The evidence at trial included Frank’s own confession, ballistic tests linking her gun to the murders, and her boot print found in blood at the scene. She had a loaded .
38 revolver on her when she was arrested, despite claiming she was unarmed.
The case 𝓮𝔁𝓹𝓸𝓼𝓮𝓭 deep problems inside the NOPD. Frank had failed a psychological exam before being hired, and a private psychiatrist she hired provided a favorable evaluation that officials used to override department warnings. She was also known to be in a relationship with Lacaze, a known criminal, but no internal investigation was opened.
The murders also led to reforms in how the department handles off-duty details and background checks. But for many in New Orleans, the case remains a symbol of corruption and systemic failure.
Rogers Lacaze, Frank’s accomplice, was originally sentenced to death as well. But his sentence was commuted to life without parole in 2019 after a juror misconduct issue. He is still alive, serving time at Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola.
Frank’s execution would be the first of a female inmate in Louisiana since the death penalty was reinstated. She has been housed at the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women in St. Gabriel, where she spends 23 hours a day in a 6-by-9-foot cell.
Her last meal request and final statement have not been disclosed. Prison officials say they are preparing for the lethal injection, which will be carried out at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola.
The execution date is set for February 14, 2026. Frank will be 54 years old on that day. She will have spent 31 years on death row.
For the families of Ronald Williams, Ha Vu, and Quang Vu, the long wait is nearly over. “She heard the sirens she caused,” Ronald Williams Sr. said, recalling the moment Frank returned to the crime scene.
“And now she will hear the sounds of justice.”