By Monique Roth

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – Frank Mike Jr., the first person charged in connection to the Joseph’s homicide case, was indicted on Friday, April 25, by a federal grand jury and charged with interstate transportation of a stolen motor vehicle.

The homicide investigation into who killed Reserve married couple Kenneth and Lakeitha Joseph gained momentum with Mike’s April 22 arrest.

Family members of Kenneth Joseph, 34, and Lakeitha Joseph, 29, reported the couple missing on Feb. 19 after they had not heard from them since Feb. 18 at 6:30 p.m.

The van Mike was charged with transporting belongs to Kenneth’s sister, who told investigators that Kenneth often borrowed her vehicle and would return it before morning the next day. She said that he borrowed it on Feb. 18 at approximately 6:30 p.m. and never returned.

U.S. Attorney Kenneth Polite Jr. announced Mike’s indictment, which states Mike transported Kenneth’s sister’s 2010 Dodge Caravan from Louisiana to Georgia.

The indictment states that video surveillance showed that Mike drove the van into the Travelodge Hotel located in College Park on Feb. 21.

The bodies of the Reserve married couple were found separately last month, his on March 22 and hers on March 10, in a New Orleans waterway.

The New Orleans Parish Coroner ruled the cause of death in both cases as drowning, and forensic testing revealed that blood samples taken from the stolen van matched the Joseph’s DNA.

Mike appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen Wells Roby on April 22. On April 23, Roby ordered Mike to be detained without bond pending the resolution of the charge. A preliminary hearing has been set for May 5.

The charge Mike faces holds a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.

Polite reiterated that the indictment is just a charge at this point and that Mike’s guilt must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

Mike has not been charged with homicide.

Mike’s criminal history in Orleans Parish includes two felony convictions for possessing and/or distributing cocaine and additional sentences for flight from an officer and resisting arrest.