Man gets 105 years for shooting at police

YOUNGSTOWN — A 19-year-old Glenwood Avenue man who fired an assault rifle at pursuing police from a car has been sentenced to 105 years in prison, to be served after he completes a 25-year-to-life sentence for an unrelated robbery and murder.

As requested by the prosecution, Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court imposed maximum consecutive sentences Monday on Craig Franklin Jr. for shooting at police from a Cadillac that had been carjacked from a church secretary on July 1, 2005, on the city’s East Side.

Franklin, who was convicted by a jury Friday of firing at seven police officers, drew seven consecutive five-year prison terms for the gun specifications and seven consecutive 10-year prison terms for felonious assault.

“A man who tries to kill the police, a man already convicted of murder and aggravated robbery, should never see the outside of a prison. Send a message that it is never open season on the police,” Timothy Franken, chief trial lawyer in the county prosecutor’s office, urged the judge. Franken, who displayed the assault rifle Franklin fired at police, added that Franklin showed no remorse.

For more, see Tuesday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com