BY DAN HORN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
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Shawn Brown, cousin of the victims, cries as the verdict is read.
(Glenn Hartong photo)
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Eighteen years after he aimed his rifle at two children and pulled the trigger, Joseph Paul Franklin became a target himself Wednesday.
First came the jury, which needed only an hour to convict him of killing Darrell Lane and Dante Evans Brown as the boys walked to a grocery store on June 8, 1980.
Then came the prosecutors, who described him as a "cowardly creep," the investigator who called him "evil" and the grieving relatives, who wished him the worst possible punishment.
"He'll get his final judgment when he meets his maker," said Abbie Evans, Dante's mother. "I know that's coming soon."
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LaVon Evans, brother of victim Dante Evans, hugs his mother, Abbie Evans.
(Glenn Hartong photo)
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Although the guilty verdicts did not surprise those who have watched the case unfold this week, the end of Mr. Franklin's trial unleashed a flood of emotions from friends, relatives and police who have waited nearly two decades for justice.
"It's been a long time coming for these families," Hamilton County Prosecutor Joseph Deters said after the verdicts were read. "It's the end of a very dark chapter in Cincinnati's history."
Many of the victims' relatives are expected to return to Hamilton County Common Pleas Court today when Judge Ralph Winkler sentences Mr. Franklin to life in prison.
Mr. Franklin, who already has been sentenced to death in other states, could not face that sentence here because Ohio did not have the death penalty in 1980. Because the serial killer already faces a death sentence in Missouri and life terms in several other states, the hearing today is a formality that will focus more on the victims' families than on Mr. Franklin.
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Joseph Paul Franklin stares at the jury as the verdict is read.
(Glenn Hartong photo)
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Prosecutors see it as an opportunity for relatives to express the frustration and the pain they endured in the years after Mr. Franklin knelt on a railroad trestle over Reading Road and fired his rifle at the two boys.
"He's the biggest creep I've ever seen," Mr. Deters said. "There's no fate bad enough for him. He's going to have to answer to a higher authority for this."
The jury's decision is the final chapter in a story that began in 1980 when Mr. Franklin packed a half-dozen guns, climbed into his brown Camaro and took to the nation's highways in search of trouble. His goal, he has said many times, was to start a race war that would "cleanse the world of blacks."
Of the 18 murders he would eventually be accused of committing, a third took place in June 1980.
"It was my most prolific month for murders," Mr. Franklin said in a taped statement last year. "I was trying to get rid of all the ugly people in the world . . . and I considered the blacks the ugliest people of all."
Darrell Lane
Dante Evans Brown
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His quest brought him to Cincinnati on June 8, when he drove through Bond Hill and decided it looked like a good place to find African-Americans or interracial couples to shoot.
Shortly after 11 p.m., he set the sights of his .44-caliber rifle on the two black children. The first shot pierced Darrell's heart and sliced through his spine. He then fired a shot at Dante as the boy tried to run away, striking him in the back.
Darrell, 14, died almost instantly. Dante, 13, held on for three days.
"My God," Mr. Deters told jurors in his closing remarks. "Think about how close he was to them. Seventy feet with a deer rifle."
Although Mr. Franklin was the top suspect almost from the beginning, the case remained unsolved because police found no witnesses, no murder weapon and little evidence directly linking him to the crime.
The big break came last year when assistant county prosecutor Melissa Powers wrote Mr. Franklin a letter asking to meet with him. After a brief "relationship,"during which Mr. Franklin declared her "gorgeous," the serial killer agreed to talk to Ms. Powers. His first words to her were: "You know, I did it. I killed those dudes."
The rest of his statement was captured on tape and used against him at his trial.
After the verdicts Wednesday, Ms. Powers said she has no doubt he was truthful when he described how he shot the boys. Most disturbing, she said, was that he seemed to enjoy talking about it.
"He's evil and he's a weak person," she said. "Killing was his way of feeling powerful and important. This is a person who is alive when he is killing.
Melissa Powers
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"And since he can't get out and kill, he tries to relive it by talking about it."
She said she's pleased that her four-hour encounter with Mr. Franklin helped convict him of the murders, but she said it took a personal toll.
"Listening to him describe this was disturbing," she said. "It took me a long time to get over it."
Mr. Franklin smiled and waved at Ms. Powers several times during the trial. Mostly, however, he sat quietly at the defense table in his blue jail uniform as prosecutors described his crimes in grisly detail.
His only comments on the final day of the trial involved renewed complaints that guards were harassing him at the Justice Center.
"The officers over there are predators and they see me as the prey," Mr. Franklin told the judge. "I think I have a right to go to court here without being abused."
Judge Winkler cut him off. "Based on what I've heard at this trial, I can understand why you're not the most popular person on their list," the judge said.
The victims' relatives shook their heads and groaned as Mr. Franklin complained, but they celebrated a few hours later when the guilty verdicts came in.
"I'm just glad it's over," said Ms. Evans, tears streaming down her face as she embraced one of her sons. Through the long wait, she said, no one in her family ever gave up hope of finding the killer. "He's out of my life," she said of Dante, "but he'll never be out of my heart."
Mr. Franklin's attorney, Dale Schmidt, had no comment after the trial and did not make a closing argument to the jury. He has indicated that he would appeal the verdict on grounds that the judge should not have allowed the taped confession because prosecutors did not first read Mr. Franklin his rights.
Mr. Deters said he's confident Mr. Franklin was treated fairly by the court. His only concern, he said, is how soon authorities can get Mr. Franklin back to death row in Missouri.
"Hopefully, the folks in Missouri will do their job," Mr. Deters said. "If there was any chance they would have been able to execute him (while he was here), we would have sent him back in a second."
While Mr. Franklin is almost out of appeals, he was granted a 30-day stay of execution earlier this week. A new execution date has not been set.
Regardless of what happens next, Ms. Powers said, she is glad Mr. Franklin will never be eligible for parole. "If he was ever released, he would kill again. I have no doubt."
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