The Only Woman on Louisiana’s Death Row — U.S Police Officer Antoinette Frank K!lled Her Own Partner

A former New Orleans police officer convicted of a 1995 triple murder at a Vietnamese restaurant in New Orleans East was back in Orleans Parish Criminal Court Wednesday as a judge weighs whether her latest legal challenge can move forward. Antonet Frank filed a new postconviction relief petition in 2024, about 15 years after her previous filing in the case involving the murders of the restaurant owner’s two children and a fellow NOPD officer.

 Frank worked offduty detail at the restaurant and knew all three victims. The Louisiana Supreme Court ordered a hearing on one narrow question whether that long delay has caused material prejudice to the state. Prosecutors argue the passage of time has made it difficult to respond to Frank’s claims, saying key witnesses have died, records have been lost, and some evidence was destroyed in Hurricane Katrina.

>> October 20th, 1995, Orleans Parish Courtroom, New Orleans. Judge Frank Morurell looks across the room and delivers four words. Death by, lethal, injection. The woman receiving that sentence is a police officer. She wore a badge. She swore an oath to protect this city. And she used that badge to walk into a restaurant and kill three people, one of them her own partner. 22 minutes.

That is all the jury needed to find her guilty on all three counts of firstdegree murder. But here is the detail that will stop you cold. When backup units arrived at the crime scene on March 4th, 1995, Antwanette Frank was already standing outside in full uniform, acting like she had absolutely nothing to do with what had just happened inside that building.

What you are about to hear will make you question how the system failed this city. Not once, but at every single turn. Today, Antonet Frank remains the only woman on Louisiana’s death row. 30 years later, she is still fighting. Three families are still waiting. And before this story is over, you will understand exactly why that badge should never have been hers.

 Welcome to the execution archive. Every detail you hear today comes directly from court records, trial testimony, and verified investigative findings. No assumptions, no fiction, just the truth of what happened and how the system responded to it. If you are new here, hit that subscribe button and tap the bell right now because this case goes much deeper than you think, and you will not want to miss a single second of what comes next.

Before we get to the crime, you need to know who was taken. Ronald Ronnie Williams II grew up right here in New Orleans East. He attended Brother Martin High School, married his high school sweetheart, Mary Burus, a girl whose family lived directly across the street from his childhood home. In 1992, he joined the New Orleans Police Department. He chose this city.

 He chose this badge. By March of 1995, Ronnie was 25 years old with two sons. Christopher was six. Patrick had just been born. Exactly one week before the night everything changed. To bring in extra money for his growing family, Ronnie picked up a security detail at a local restaurant. He showed up. He did his job.

 He trusted the people around him. But court records show that in the days before his death, Ronnie pulled Xiao Vu aside and told her directly he did not trust Antwanet Frank. She heard him. She would not forget it. Then there were Hau Vu and Kangvu, sister and brother, children of a Vietnamese immigrant family who had built something remarkable from absolutely nothing.

Their father, Leanvu, came to the United States in 1981. His wife and children followed a decade later in 1991. Together, they opened the Kiman Noodle House on Bullard Avenue. Four of their children worked that floor every single day. Ha was 24 years old, quietly faithful. She had already told her family she wanted to become a Catholic nun. Kuang was 17, an alter boy at St.

Bridget Catholic Church, a high school football player, and someone who had spoken openly about one day entering the priesthood. These were not strangers. These were real people with real futures. And Patrick Williams was one week old. His father never came home. Antuinette Renee Frank was born on April 30th, 1971 in Opaloosis, Louisiana.

 She was the second of four children and from the very beginning, her life was defined by instability. Her father, Adam Frank, was a Vietnam veteran receiving psychiatric care through the Veterans Administration. He was prescribed antiscychotic medication. VA clinical records dated October 1973 document Adam Frank personally admitting to physically harming his two-year-old daughter.

 A follow-up entry written just 14 days later noted that conditions inside that home were getting worse, not better. The VA recommended the children be removed. That recommendation was never carried out. Those who knew Antwanette growing up described her as unusually withdrawn. Her mother later told reporters that her daughter simply did not socialize.

 Two months before the murders, KNOP detectives showed up at Antwanette’s home searching for her brother, Adam Frank Jr., a wanted fugitive facing two counts of attempted manslaughter and a probation violation. Despite all of that, one goal never changed. She wanted to be a police officer. As a teenager, she joined the Opaloosa’s Junior Police Program and later New Orleans Police Explorers Post 560.

 She graduated from Opaloosa’s High School in 1989. On April 30th, 1991, she applied to the NOP for the first time. She failed the psychological exam, so she went out, hired her own private psychiatrist, obtained a more favorable evaluation, and applied again. The second time around, the department brought in their own psychologist, Dr. Philip Scuria.

 He evaluated Frank across 14 characteristics relevant to police work and rated her unacceptable or below average on most of them. His written recommendation was direct, do not hire. There was more. The application included a recommendation letter bearing what appeared to be the signature of Mayor Sydney Bartholomew. The mayor later denied ever signing it.

 Frank had also been fired from a Walmart in Opaloosis for personality conflicts, but she told the KNP she had simply been transferred, not dismissed. The department’s own investigator uncovered these discrepancies, reviewed the file, and still rated her acceptable. On February 7th, 1993, the New Orleans Police Department handed Antwanet Frank a badge.

 Every warning sign was documented, every flag was visible, and every single one was ignored. What follows is the cost of that decision. November 1994, New Orleans East. Antwanet Frank responds to a shooting call. The victim is Rogers Leesay, 18 years old, a known drug dealer with a documented history of street violence. Most officers take the report and move on. Frank does not move on.

 Within weeks, Leayes is seen behind the wheel of Frank’s personal red and white Ford Torino. Then he turns up inside her marked police cruiser at an active crime scene. When colleagues asked questions, Frank called him her trainee. Other times her nephew. In every formal interview she gave, she denied any romantic involvement.

 Investigators later confirmed they were in a sexual relationship. He was 18. She was 24. She had a badge. He had a criminal record. It did not stop there. Multiple witnesses later testified that Frank and Leay used her uniform and her patrol unit to pull over motorists and robbed them. These were not rumors. They were documented accounts from multiple individuals.

 Not one of those claims was formally investigated while Frank remained on active duty. Then came February 4th, 1995, one month before the murders. Leesay gets into a confrontation at a party. He produces a Tech9 semi-automatic weapon. Retired civil sheriff Irvin Bryant arrives on scene and moves to step in. Frank is already there standing in full uniform.

 She tells Bryant that Leay is with her and orders him released. Bryant is never formally questioned afterward. No official statement is taken. No departmental follow-up is opened. The very next day, February 5th, 1995, Frank walks into a local Walmart and purchases 9 mm ammunition. When investigators later asked about it, she said she saw nothing unusual.

 She was a police officer. But there is one more detail. In the weeks leading up to the murders, a 9mm pistol was released from the Knopt’s own property and evidence room. The release order carried the signature of Judge Frank Morurell, the same judge who would later preside over both murder trials. Judge Morurell denied the signature was his.

 He said it had been forged. That same 9mm would soon be used to take three lives. This was not a random robbery. This was planned. Antonet Frank had worked the Kim An Noodle House security detail many times alongside Officer Ronald Williams. She knew the layout of that building. She knew the family’s daily routines. She knew exactly how the cash moved.

 And she knew that on the night of March 3rd, 1995, $10,000 was sitting inside that restaurant set aside for upcoming plumbing work and parking lot expansion. She had been inside that building dozens of times. She knew precisely where to look. The plan had two parts. Frank was the access point. Lease was the muscle.

She could walk through that front door without raising a single alarm. He would handle what came next. She also knew that Ronald Williams would be armed and on duty inside. Leay was positioned specifically to intercept him. During her visits to the restaurant that night, Frank removed the front door key from Quac Vu without him realizing it was gone.

 Court records confirm this was deliberate. She used that key to re-enter the building in the early hours of the morning. The same 9mm pistol tied to the forged evidence room order was later confirmed by ballistics as the weapon used in all three murders. What Frank did not know, what nobody told her, was that Xiao Vu had seen that red and white Ford Torino pull into the parking lot for the third time.

 She remembered exactly what Ronnie Williams had warned her about. Quietly, without a word, she grabbed the $10,000 from the table and placed it inside the microwave. Then she waited. If you have made it this far, you already know this case is unlike anything we have covered on this channel. Make sure you are subscribed right now and drop your answer in the comments below.

 Did the system fail Ronnie Williams the moment it hired her or did it happen even before that? I read every single response. Now, let’s get back to the story because what happens next is impossible to believe. 9:00 in the evening, March 3rd, 1995. Antwanette Frank is still on her regular shift at the 7th district police station.

 She picks up the phone and calls the Kiman restaurant. Shiao Vu answers. Frank asks whether her security services are needed that night. Chiao tells her that Ronnie Williams is already there. Frank says nothing more. She hangs up. Williams being there is not going to stop her. It is simply something she will have to work around. At 11:00, her shift ends.

 She leaves the station, goes home, and changes out of her uniform. She collects Roger’s lease. The two of them climb into her red and white Ford Torino and drive to the Kiman Noodle House on Bullard Avenue. This is their first visit of the night. Frank goes inside alone. Leay stays in the car. She orders cold drinks.

 She talks with the VU family and with Officer Williams. relaxed, friendly, completely normal. At some point, she brings Leay’s inside briefly, introducing him as her nephew. She tells everyone they are heading out to a midnight movie. They finish their drinks and leave. Somewhere during that visit, she lifts the front door key from Quacvu.

 He does not notice it is gone. At approximately 12:15 in the morning, now March 4th, 1995, Frank calls the restaurant again and places a food order. She and Leay return together for their second visit. They eat. They interact with the family. Then they leave again. After they go, the Vu family matriarch, Noyet Gwyn, decides to close early. It had been a slow night.

Before walking out, she leaves $10,000 in cash on a table in the staff area, money set aside for upcoming plumbing work and parking lot expansion. She leaves the restaurant in the hands of her children and Vu Vu, a waitress who had worked for the family for years. Shortly before 2:00 in the morning, Cha Vu is in the kitchen when she glances toward the parking lot.

 The red and white Ford Torino is pulling in for the third time. She remembers every word Ronnie Williams told her. Without making a sound, she grabs the $10,000 from the table and places it inside the microwave. Then she waits. Frank uses the stolen key to enter through the front door. She moves fast. She directs Ciao, Quac, and Vuvu toward the kitchen.

Officer Ronald Williams, seated on a bar stool in the dining area, stands up and moves to follow them. He never made it. What happened in the next 4 minutes cannot be undone. Lees is already positioned at the rear of the building. He intercepts Williams before he reaches the kitchen door.

 He fires three times with the 9mm pistol. Ronald Williams II, 25 years old, one week into fatherhood, dies on the floor of the restaurant he was paid to protect. Inside the kitchen, Chiao moves immediately. She pulls Quack and Vuy Vu into the walk-in cooler, shuts the door behind them, and turns off the light.

 Through a small glass window in the cooler door, she watches Frank move through the kitchen, carrying Leesa’s weapon, searching the area where the family usually kept their cash. Frank also takes the restaurant’s cordless phone from the bar. Nobody still inside that building can now call for help. Ha Vu and Kyong Vu did not reach the cooler in time.

 Frank and Leay confront them in the kitchen. They demand to know where the money is. Neither Han nor Kuang knows where Chiao hid it. Frank strikes Kuang, trying to force an answer. When that fails, she searches the kitchen herself. She finds the $10,000 inside the microwave. Hau Vu, 24 years old, is shot and killed. Kangvu, 17 years old, is shot and killed.

 the same 9mm pistol, the same trigger. Three victims. One night, Frank and Leay walk out of the building together. She drops him at his brother’s apartment in Gretina. Approximately 45 minutes after leaving the Kiman, Leesay uses Ronald Williams Chevron credit card at a gas station three blocks from that apartment. $15 in fuel.

 Frank drives back to the seventh district police station. Then over her portable police radio, the dispatch comes through. Officer down Kimon restaurant, Bullard Avenue. She turns the car around. At 1:52 in the morning, officers Wayne Favre and Reginald Jacques arrive at the scene in a second police vehicle. A third unit follows right behind.

 As they approach the building, Cha Vu runs out toward them from inside. Antuinette Frank steps out right behind her in full uniform and identifies herself to the arriving officers as a responding officer. She is already there. She is already performing and she is counting on no one figuring out why. Frank is standing outside the Kiman in full uniform. Officers are arriving.

 Blue lights are cutting through the dark and she is playing the role of a responding officer. Then in the presence of officer Ivonne Favre, Frank turns to Xiao Vu and asks a simple question. What happened? Chiao Vu looks directly at her and tells her the truth. She was there. She knows exactly what happened.

 That exchange witnessed by a fellow officer is documented in court records. Detectives Eddie Rants and Marco Dema arrive and immediately take control of the scene. They separate Frank and Cha Vu, placing each of them at different tables inside the restaurant and questioning them individually. Frank’s story begins to fall apart almost immediately.

 Her account shifts. Details change. Then, Detective Rants presents her with one fact she cannot explain away. The back door of the restaurant was locked from the inside. No outside perpetrator could have entered or exited through it. When confronted with that, Frank’s story changes entirely.

 For the first time, she mentions Roger’s lease by name. Then comes another problem. Frank had told investigators she was unarmed. During a search, a loaded 38 caliber revolver is found on her person. Meanwhile, at his brother’s apartment in Gretna, Leesay tells investigators he spent the evening playing pool at a local billiard hall.

The owner of that hall is contacted. His answer is immediate. Leesay was not there that night. Two stories, zero credibility. She had a police radio in her car the entire time. She never used it. That single fact would follow her straight to death row. The evidence collected at the Kiman that night was methodical and damning.

 Ballistic testing confirmed that all three victims, Officer Ronald Williams, Hauvu, and Kuangvu, were shot with the same 9mm pistol. A bootprint recovered from the scene matched Antwanet Frank’s uniform boots. Blood was found on her clothing. Frank is transported to police headquarters. A tape recorder is placed on the table.

 She gives a formal statement. She admits that Leay shot Ronald Williams. She admits that she shot Ha and Kuang Vu. Her explanation is that Leay’s forced her to participate under direct threat to her life, that he held a gun to her head and gave her no choice. Investigators press her on one point she cannot answer. Her police radio, fully functional, capable of reaching units across the entire district, was found inside her private vehicle.

 At no point during the events inside that restaurant did she use it to call for help. Not once, not a single transmission. Leesa’s use of Ronald Williams Chevron credit card is confirmed directly by the gas station. The owner places the transaction within 45 minutes of the murders. On the morning of March 4th, 1995, Mayor Mark Moriel and police Superintendent Richard Pennington stand before reporters.

 Both men are visibly shaken. Pennington confirms the motive was robbery and that an undetermined amount of cash had been taken from the restaurant. That same day, Ronald Williams senior and his son Sha are photographed leaving the courthouse after the initial proceedings. Inside the Kimon, a family is trying to understand how two of their children never made it out of the kitchen they had worked in their entire lives.

 Laz does not make it through the night. Investigators pick him up at his brother’s apartment in Gretina before dawn. His alibi is already dead. The billiard hall owner has confirmed he was never there. Ronald Williams Chevron credit card places him at a gas station three blocks from that same apartment. Within 45 minutes of three people being killed, he is arrested.

 Frank is already in custody. On April 28th, 1995, an Orleans Parish grand jury formally indictes both Antwanet Frank and Rogers Lacaz on three counts of firstdegree murder each. The evidence standing against them leaves very little room for argument. A recorded confession, Frank’s own voice captured on tape admitting to the shootings.

 Ballistic testing linking the same 9mm pistol to all three murders. A bootprint matching her uniform boots. Blood on her clothing. The stolen front door key. The restaurant’s cordless phone removed from the bar to cut off any call for help. Her police radio found completely unused in her personal vehicle and Leesay’s fraudulent use of a dead officer’s credit card.

 Then there is one detail investigators cannot fully close. The 9mm used in all three murders was released directly from the Knopt’s own property and evidence room. The release order carried a forged judicial signature belonging to the same judge who would go on to preside over both trials. How that weapon moved from a police evidence room into that restaurant was never fully resolved in court.

 That question remains open to this day. The trials move quickly. The evidence is overwhelming. Rogers Leayes goes first. His trial runs from July 17th to July 21st, 1995. Prosecutors Glenn Woods and Elizabeth Teal present the case methodically. The single most damaging piece of evidence is straightforward. Lees used Ronald Williams Chevron credit card within minutes of three people being shot dead.

The jury finds him guilty. He is sentenced to death. Antwanet Frank’s trial begins September 5th, 1995 before the same judge, Judge Frank Morurell. Early in the proceedings, the jury is taken on a physical tour of the Kiman Noodle House on Bullard Avenue. Detective Marco Dema walks them through the kitchen.

 He shows them exactly where Ha and Kangvu were found. Then they return to the courtroom and the recorded confession is played aloud. Frank’s own voice describing what she did. Her defense attorney, Robert Jenkins, had subpoenaed 39 witnesses. He called none of them. His closing argument placed every piece of blame squarely on Leesay’s.

 He presented no testimony about Frank’s childhood, her father’s documented abuse, or her psychological history. Not one word. Prosecutor Teal’s response was simple and precise. Frank had a loaded firearm throughout the entire event inside that restaurant. She had a fully functioning police radio. She used neither.

 She made no attempt to intervene. She made no call for help. The jury went out to deliberate. 22 minutes later, they came back. Guilty on all three counts of firstdegree murder. At the time, it was the fastest verdict ever returned in a capital case in New Orleans history. The following day, the same jury deliberated for 45 minutes and recommended the death penalty.

 On October 20th, 1995, Judge Morurell formally sentenced Antwanet Frank to death by lethal injection. Leesa’s case, however, took a different turn. In 2015, retired judge Michael Kirby vacated Leesa’s conviction after it emerged that a juror had been a commissioned law enforcement officer who deliberately concealed that fact during jury selection.

 That ruling was overturned in January 2016 by the fourth circuit court of appeal and the Louisiana Supreme Court affirmed that decision in 2019 under Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Canazaro. Leesa’s death sentence was ultimately commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole through a postconviction arrangement. Rogers Leesay is alive today in a prison cell but alive.

 On October 20th, 1995, Antuinette Frank was transferred to the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women in St. Gabriel. She became the only woman on Louisiana’s death row. She has held that distinction for 30 years. Her conviction was declared final in 2008. Shortly after, her legal team filed a postconviction relief application.

 In July 2009, a supplement was filed raising 18 separate claims for relief. In July 2024, a second supplement added six additional claims. Her current attorneys argue that Rogers Leesay forced her participation at gunpoint and that she was not a willing partner in what happened inside the Kimon. Three independent experts, Dr. Sarah Dand, Dr. Lesie Leowitz, and Dr.

Frederick Solder, each evaluated Frank separately and arrived at the same conclusions. Post-traumatic stress disorder and dependent personality disorder, both directly linked to prolonged childhood abuse. Two of the original jurors later submitted sworn affidavit stating that if mental health testimony had been presented at trial, they would have voted for life imprisonment, not death.

 Her team has also argued that the state possessed evidence pointing to Leesa’s culpability, evidence prosecutors themselves labeled as such, and failed to share it with Frank’s defense. The state’s position is equally firm. On April 28th, 2025, prosecutors filed procedural objections. They argued that the 15-year gap between Frank’s original application and the 2024 supplement had materially damaged their ability to respond. Witnesses have died.

 Evidence has been lost. Records have been destroyed. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Merl stated publicly, “It’s a terrible injustice to the victims and their families. If we are going to have a death penalty, then we should be able to carry it out. The Louisiana Supreme Court ruled unanimously that a district court must first hold a dedicated hearing on the timing objection before any of Frank’s new claims can be reviewed on their merits.

 In 2023, Frank’s clemency petition reached a formal parole board hearing, one of only five granted that year. Governor John Bell Edwards had already gone on record opposing capital punishment. The board voted 2 to2. Under Louisiana rules, a tied vote is a denial. Board member Alvin Rocher Jr. cited Frank’s prison disciplinary record and the risk of eventual parole eligibility as the basis for his no vote.

 In 2025, Louisiana carried out its first execution in 15 years. Antuinet Frank was not on the list. Her act of appeals legally blocked any scheduling. No execution date has been set. No date can be set while those appeals remain legally active. Ronald Williams senior has attended every single court proceeding since 1995. Everyone after the murders, Anvu rebuilt the Kiman restaurant.

 Then Hurricane Katrina destroyed the Bullard Avenue location in 2005. He rebuilt it again. The Kiman Noodle House now operates in Harahan. That family came to this country with nothing. They built something. They lost two children inside it and they kept going. That is who they are. Chauvu has said publicly that what she witnessed on March 4th, 1995 will stay with her for the rest of her life.

She trusted a warning. She hid the money. She pulled two people into that cooler and kept them alive. She also watched two of her siblings die through a small glass window. She carries both of those things every single day. Christopher Williams was 6 years old when his father was killed. His brother Patrick was one week old.

 They grew up without him. Prosecutor Glenn Wood still keeps a photograph of Ha and Kangvu in his office. Prosecutor Elizabeth Teal has described these two trials as the most difficult of her entire career. Three victims, three families, one badge that should never have been issued. and a woman who has spent 30 years in a cell arguing she did not choose to be there while Ronald Williams sons have spent 30 years without a father.

 The question of what justice looks like in this case belongs to you. What moment in this story hit you the hardest? Was it the hiring failures that put her on the force in the first place? What happened inside that restaurant in the early hours of March 4th or the 30 years of legal battles that followed? Tell me in the comments. I read every single one.

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