And Never See Her Again (31 page)

Edward Jones rose, momentarily placed a hand on the shoulder of his client, and then walked to the jury box. Jones told jurors he was tired, as were all the other attorneys whom they had seen in the past days, as he knew they were. "Everybody wants this over with," Jones said.

"It's a horror. It's a horror that this little girl is gone. It's a horror, but just like Ms. Sanderford said-if Ricky didn't do it, they need to let him go home," Jones remarked.

The young attorney recapped witnesses' testimony that Ricky Franks was not the man they saw on the afternoon of Opal's kidnapping, including that of young Spencer.

"The state is going to rely on sympathy and bias. And they are relying on that, not evidence. Is it so astronomical to believe that maybe he didn't do it? Where there is absolutely no evidence to show you that he did?"

Like Callahan, Ed Jones had completed his portion of the trial. It was Leon Haley's turn to talk to the jury, to convince them Ricky Franks should be sent home.

Haley began by asking the jury to hear him out, informing them he didn't have much time to speak to them.

"Ricky is on trial because the investigators for the state had a theory. They had a theory based upon information that they received. And you know what is unfortunate about the whole thing is that it all started out, not because Ricky did it, but because somebody said Ricky had a red hat on, a red cap that everybody runs around town wearing. My kids, your kids, people with young minds, have red caps," Haley stated.

The defense continued by admitting that Franks had made the written statement, but pointed out that just because his client had made the statement didn't make it true. Over and over again Haley implied that Ricky Franks was like a child, easily manipulated and confused.

"He didn't do it," Haley stated. "There is no evidence to support it. No physical evidence. No scientific evidence. Absolutely nothing. And you don't come in here and convict somebody because they said they did something and there is nothing to corroborate it, absolutely nothing."

After accusing investigators of conducing an improper arrest and interrogation, Haley walked to his client, stood behind him with his hands on Franks's shoulders, and continued to address the jury.

"I intend to take him home. Let's join hands and do it right. Let's make them go back out there; let's make them find Opal, which is what they say they want to do. I promise you, when they find Opal, wherever she is, they will be sick and looking really silly when they realize it wasn't him.

"When a system overreaches and puts one of our citizens on trial, only you, only you, can stand there and say stop it. You can do it. You told me during voir dire you had the courage to do it. Now do it. Tell me that I can take my client home."

Ricky Franks wiped tears from his cheeks while his brother Rodney brushed away his own tears.

Greg Miller stood, a fire burning within him. He began a spirited final statement, which had a cutting edge intended to pierce the defense's pleas for acquittal.

"Mr. Haley asked you to take a look at Ricky Franks. I'm counting on the fact that when Ms. Manning was reading Franks's statement, some of you were looking at Ricky Franks.

"All through the trial, Ricky Franks has sat over there, head up, held high, laughs when everybody laughs, smiles when everybody else smiles, shows the appropriate reaction. But when Kathy Manning read this statement to you," Miller said, pointing to the enlarged statement on the easel, "[you] didn't hold your head up so high, did you, Ricky? You had it down in shame because you knew you took her."

Without notes to assist him, Miller fervently ran through the witnesses and the evidence the defense rejected as valid.

"When you add it all up, there is only one conclusion that you can come to: Richard Franks is guilty of aggravated kidnapping.

"And there is a reason why Richard Franks hasn't told us where the body is. And it didn't come from any of the officers, any of the other witnesses. Andrew Bouyer (Tarrant County inmate) summed it up perfectly when he said to Richard Franks, `If they find her body, you will fry.'

"There is a world of difference between an aggravated kidnapping conviction and a capital murder conviction.

"When you add up all the evidence, you're going to come to the same conclusion that some of these people told you about, that Richard Franks is guilty of aggravated kidnapping.

"Mr. Haley says he wants to take him home. Well, I want him to go to a new home. I want him out of Tarrant County in another home, in the prison system. Don't turn Richard Franks loose for someone else's young child.

"Good luck with your deliberations."

As in the first trial, anyone in the courtroom waiting for a "smoking gun" to be presented in the final moments of the trial was disappointed. There would be no Perry Mason moment, when someone would come forward to convince jurors and spectators alike that without a doubt Ricky Franks kidnapped Opal Jennings. The state's case was strictly circumstantial. No blood evidence, no DNA evidence, no fingerprints. Just a strong case built on glaring circumstantial evidence and Franks's own vile statement.

At 2:25 P.M., deliberations began for the twelve jurors contemplating Franks's guilt or innocence.

Sometime later, the jury sent out a note asking for certain testimony. The first of the inquiries was Mike Adair's question to Franks regarding Saginaw and Ricky's response to Adair concerning his knowledge of the area.

By late evening, after deliberating for eight hours, the jury hadn't reached a decision. Judge Gill released them for the night, instructing them to return at nine o'clock the next morning to continue their discussions.

The court gallery had dwindled considerably the following morning. It was a Saturday and most of those not required to be present had gone about their normal routines.

Ricky Franks walked into the courtroom with his shoulders thrown back and a smile across his face. His eyes met his wife's and his smile broadened.

Judy Franks and Ricky's mother, Bessie, were dressed in identical T-shirts. Judy had donned her familiar heavy blue eye shadow and her hair was slicked back. One of her front teeth was missing.

Again the jury asked for testimony to be read to them for clarification. They wanted to know if Eric Holden had asked open-ended questions or closed questions during his interview with Franks. The third inquiry was about Dr. Leo's testimony regarding testing the validity of a statement. However, Judge Gill believed the inquiry too general and that the question should be more specific. The panel later wanted to hear the description of the person and the car seen by a number of people who had testified.

At 2:20 P.M., testimony of Jesse Herrera about Franks's haircut and the tip he had passed on to the task force was requested. Then at 2:52 P.M., jurors asked for Agent Lori Keefer's statement about the false scenario told to Franks on the night of his arrest.

Greg Miller sat in the jury box talking with another assistant district attorney. From his location he could hear loud voices coming from the jury room. Miller suspected there was a lively, even argumentative discussion taking place. He wondered how the jury was leaning. Then the buzzer from the jury room again sounded. The bailiff went to the jury room door, took a piece of paper handed to him, and gave judge Gill the note.

"The jury has just sent a note saying that they are unable to render a unanimous verdict." Greg Miller's eyes closed momentarily. He let out an exhausted sigh. Not again, he thought. Not again.

"At this point I intend to read the jury an Allen charge and tell them to continue their deliberations," Judge Gill announced.

An Allen charge is an instruction by the court to a jury that is having difficulty rendering a verdict in a criminal case. It encourages the jury to make a renewed effort to arrive at a decision. Some judges no longer permit the instruction to be given after the jury reports it is deadlocked because it may have a coercive effect upon the jury. Judge Gill thought it necessary in this case, with this the second jury to hear the Franks kidnapping case.

Leon Haley stood to address the court. Haley asked for a mistrial and objected to the Allen charge being given to the jury.

Judge Gill made note of Haley's objection, then called in the jury.

"Mr. Foreman, without telling me what the numbers mean, could you tell me numerically what the split of the jury is at this point?" Judge Gill asked.

"Ten to two," the jury foreman replied.

Judge Gill rendered the Allen charge and instructed the jury to continue deliberations, informing them that if they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict, it would be necessary to declare a mistrial.

Once the jury was back in the jury room, Leon Haley again addressed the court.

"Your Honor, I would like for the record to reflect that one of the jurors is crying and I submit that with that Allen charge being submitted to them, with all that coercing, that one juror is being intimidated by at least ten of the other jurors. I'd ask the court for a mistrial."

"Denied," Judge Gill responded.

Nearly eight hours after beginning a second day of deliberations and sixteen total hours of debating the guilt or innocence of Richard Franks, the jury came in with a verdict.

"I expect the jury's verdict to be received by you with the proper courtroom decorum,"Judge Gill announced to everyone present in the courtroom.

"Has the jury reached a verdict? "Judge Gill asked.

"Yes, we have," the foreman stated.

"We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of the of fense of aggravated kidnapping as charged in the indictment," the foreman said.

Judy Franks sobbed loudly, sucking in deep, painful breaths. Blue eye shadow and black mascara streamed down her face as her body shook from intense weeping. Bessie Franks held her hands to her face, hiding the tears she shed for her youngest son. Rodney Hemphill clung to his girlfriend, his face buried in her hair. Richard Franks pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes in an angry scowl directed at the jury.

Lisa Callahan allowed a smile to cross her lips as Greg Miller simply heaved a sigh of relief.

The Sanderford family sat quietly. There was no celebration of victory for justice. No triumphant smiles. They hoped, as Greg Miller had assured them, that the person responsible for Opal's disappearance had been held accountable. But the verdict still left them hollow. Opal was still gone.

Judge Gill announced October 2, 2000, as the date he would sentence Richard Lee Franks.

On October 2, 2000, the defense for Richard Franks asked for a mistrial. Judge Gill denied the motion. It was then on to the punishment phase of the hearing.

Greg Miller called Angela Weaver, a twenty-year-old woman who had first met Ricky Franks when she was about five years old. Franks was fourteen or fifteen at the time. Weaver had met Franks at his mother's home in Newark, Texas.

"Did Franks ever touch you?" Miller asked.

"He would touch me in my vagina area," Weaver stated.

She explained that Franks would also make her perform oral sex on him, and he would perform oral sex on her. Franks told her it was a game they were playing and they would both be in trouble if anyone found out. Weaver told the court that she finally told her mother when she was thirteen years old. Franks had never been prosecuted for the abuse.

The disclosure of the abuse suffered by Weaver was just one more indication that Ricky Franks was a sexual predator. His deviant behavior was known to have begun by age thirteen or fourteen, although it could have been even earlier, and continued until age thirty when he abducted Opal Jennings. The chances were that there were dozens of other victims who had never told.

Cassie Bishop was called to the stand. Bishop, a probation officer for Wise County in 1991, was in court when Richard Lee Franks entered a plea of guilty to the offense of indecency with a child, the victim being his eight-year-old niece. He'd been assessed a seven-year probated sentence. Miller presented the witness to show that Franks had been convicted of a sex crime against a child previously, thus enhancing his sentence and mandating a life sentence.

Judge Gill spoke to the defendant. "Mr. Franks, the jury having convicted you upon your plea of not guilty of the offense of aggravated kidnapping, and having made an affirmative finding that the offense was committed with the intent to violate the victim sexually, and having found that the sex offender notice in the indictment is true, it will be the order, judgment, and decree of this court that you be sentenced to life confinement in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal justice."

Flanked by Tarrant County sheriff's deputies, Richard Lee Franks was led from the courtroom without incident to begin his life sentence at his prison home.

Nearly five years had passed since Opal Jennings had been playing with her friends in the yard of her grandparents' Saginaw, Texas, home. The trees along North Hampshire Street had grown a little taller, but little else had changed.

Teresa and Clay Sanderford, along with grandson Austin, had bought the house across the street from Audrey and Robert. Austin participated in play therapy in order for him to deal with Opal's abduction, and Teresa listened whenever Austin felt a need to talk.

"Opal's gone. That bad man got her, put her in a car, and made her cry," Austin would say.

Patricia Barrett, Teresa's sister, and her family continued to live on the corner, only a couple of houses away. Spencer Williams and his grandmother were right next door. Spencer and Austin remained playmates.

With the passage of time Audrey seemed to have found strength through the tragedy of Opal's kidnapping. Although the physical and emotional strains had taken their toll, including the dissolution of her marriage to Robert, Audrey had found a purpose. She moved back to Clarksville, Arkansas, the place of Opal's birth, and began an association that supported the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Opal's great-aunt, Michelle Schmoker, set up projects to fingerprint and photograph more than five thousand children so parents would have proper identification. Michelle's "Project Kid Print" also included a kit for taking a DNA sample. Together Audrey Sanderford and Michelle Schmoker set up an "Opal Jennings Memorial Kid Print and Safety Fair" on March 26 of each year, the day Opal was kidnapped. They did it all in the name of Opal Jennings.