Seven cops ID man as shooter, prosecutor says

The defendant wasn’t present or involved, his lawyer says.

By PETER H. MILLIKEN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Seven police officers can identify Craig Franklin Jr. as a man who shot at them during a chase more than two years ago on the city’s East Side, a prosecutor told the jury in Franklin’s trial.

“We’ve got seven police officers who saw him,” Timothy Franken, chief trial lawyer in the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s office, told a jury of six men and six women in his opening statement Tuesday.

“All they’re going to keep saying is: ‘Seven police officers can’t be wrong.’ Well, they can be. They’re human beings just like everyone else,” Franklin’s lawyer, Ron Yarwood, told the jury.

Franklin, 19, of Glenwood Avenue, is on trial before Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on seven counts of felonious assault on police officers.

Franklin was one of four occupants of a white Cadillac that was carjacked from a church secretary, and from which shots were fired at pursuing police July 1, 2005, police reports said.

Franklin fired at police through the Cadillac’s back window during the pursuit, Franken said, displaying on the prosecution table three assault rifles allegedly fired at police by occupants of the car.

When the occupants bailed out of the Cadillac into a wooded area off Albert Street, the seven officers saw Franklin firing at them as the Cadillac’s three other occupants ran into the woods before Franklin backed into the woods, Franken said.

“For a period of time, all seven of those police officers are focused on one guy because that guy’s shooting at them,’’ Franken said, referring to Franklin. “Nobody else is shooting at them anymore,” he added.

Mistaken identity

“Mr. Franklin wasn’t one of those individuals involved. He wasn’t there. He wasn’t in that Cadillac,” Yarwood said, adding that Franklin would testify “that this is a case of mistaken identification.”

Mistaken identification could occur in the fast-moving, chaotic events of that day, Yarwood said. “There are several cars involved; there are extended chases going on; and there’s gunfire everywhere,” he added.

If convicted on all counts, Franklin faces 42 to 91 years in prison. Franklin was the first of four defendants to go on trial in this incident. The other defendants, all to be tried separately, are Brandon C. Jackson, 23, of Truesdale Avenue, an alleged backseat passenger; Duniek Christian, 22, of North Garland Avenue, the alleged driver; and Jumal Edwards, 23, of Woodcrest Avenue, the alleged front seat passenger.

There were no injuries. The four suspects were arrested the next morning.

The chase led to an evacuation of the Mahoning County Department of Job and Family Services, then on Garland Avenue, and a six-hour manhunt involving a helicopter, a small plane, search dogs and officers from multiple jurisdictions.