And Never See Her Again (24 page)

As Herrera took the stand, Franks pressed his lips tightly together, creases formed around his eyes. Franks and his family believed if not for Jesse Herrera, Ricky Franks wouldn't be on trial for the kidnapping of Opal Jennings.

Greg Miller took care while questioning the Wise County probation officer. He had been cautioned not to mention Herrera's occupation or make any reference to his professional association with the defendant. Any such reference would be considered prejudicial. According to Texas law, Franks's previous probation for indecency with a child would be withheld from the twelve men and women who would determine his guilt or innocence.

"When is the last time you saw Richard Franks?" Miller asked.

"April 1, 1999," Herrera said, his voice breaking slightly. The young Hispanic probation officer nervously adjusted his dark-rimmed glasses. Herrera had experienced some personal difficulty since the arrest of Franks for the crime that had gripped North Texas for months. Not unlike sex offender probation officers everywhere, Herrera felt tremendous remorse that one of his charges might have reoffended.

Continuing his questioning, Miller asked when, before April 1, had Herrera seen Richard Franks.

"March tenth," Herrera stated.

Miller checked his notes, pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, and asked, "During the times that you would see Richard Franks, did you have an opportunity to determine or view his physical appearance?"

"Yes, sir."

"Let's talk about from 1997 to March 10, 1999. Was Mr. Franks's appearance during that span of time consistent with the way he looks in the courtroom here today?" Miller asked.

All eyes in the courtroom shifted from Herrera to Ricky Franks seated at the defense table clothed in a dark bluejacket, white shirt, and dark tie. Herrera's attention had also moved to the defendant, then returned to Miller.

"No, sir, it wasn't," Herrera answered.

"Would you tell the jury what the difference was," Miller encouraged.

Herrera took a long breath and, without looking at Franks again, replied, "He had long hair, usually scruffy-looking, didn't shave very often. He normally wore a T-shirt. Every now and then, he'd wear a cap and he'd wear blue jeans."

Jurors studied the defendant. Herrera's description of Ricky Franks was a far cry from the clean-cut man they saw sitting quietly in the courtroom.

Herrera testified that he didn't recall the color of the cap most often worn by Franks, but stated he had seen Franks's hair worn long in a ponytail.

'When he appeared on April 1, 1999, did anything catch your attention?" Miller questioned.

"He had a fresh haircut. Really short, a clean cut," Herrera responded.

"When he came to the meeting, how did he get there?" Miller continued.

"He came up there with his wife, Judy. They appeared to be in a black Mercury Cougar," Herrera said, avoiding the cold stares of Franks and his family.

"When you saw Richard Franks in the Cougar, what did you think?" Miller asked.

"Initially I had this weird feeling in my stomach," Herrera responded, touching his midriff with his right hand. "The description matched a flyer that I had on my filing cabinet at the time."

Herrera then explained that after seeing Franks and making note of the changes he had made in his appearance, and noticing the car he was driving, he'd contacted the Wise County Sheriff's Office and given the information to a deputy.

Miller pressed on with his questioning, connecting the dots that he felt would reveal Richard Franks as OpalJennings's kidnapper. Miller persisted by asking Herrera about a conversation he'd had with Danny Doyle, Franks's half brother. The conversation hadn't been a pleasant one. Doyle had wanted to know if Herrera had ordered his brother to cut his hair. When Herrera told Doyle he hadn't, and refused to discuss it with him, Doyle became very angry.

Greg Miller slowly walked from the witness stand, where he had stood to question Herrera, back to his seat at the prosecution table. He was pleased that through Herrera's testimony he had presented evidence that Richard Franks intentionally had altered his appearance after the disappearance of Opal Jennings. He hoped the jury found Franks's actions as deliberate as he had.

As Miller settled in his chair, Leon Haley stood to question Herrera.

"There's nothing wrong with having your hair in a ponytail, is there?" Haley asked.

"No, sir. "

"The times you have seen him, sometimes he didn't have his hair in a ponytail, did he?" Haley questioned.

"That's correct."

Herrera agreed with the defense attorney that on occasion Franks would wear his hair straight down, at shoulder length, or occasionally have it shorter. But Herrera emphasized that he had never seen Franks with his hair shorter than just above the collar until after March 26, 1999.

Then Haley did something Herrera hadn't expected. Haley asked the witness to step down from the stand and for Ricky Franks to walk over to where Herrera stood.

The audience, along with jurors, watched intensely as Richard Franks stood and walked toward his adversary. Franks stared sternly at his former probation officer, while Herrera avoided eye contact.

Herrera's stomach churned and his jaw tensed as Franks approached. Following his attorney's instructions, Franks turned his back toward Herrera. Gesturing as Haley requested, Herrera showed the jury where Franks's hair had lain at its longest.

With relief, Herrera took his seat as Franks returned to sit beside Ed Jones.

"Did you ever see Ricky Franks with a red cap on?" Haley asked.

"Not that I recall," Herrera stated.

"Living around here with the Texas Rangers, a lot of people have red caps, wouldn't you say?" Haley asked.

"I'm sure there are," Herrera replied. He was doing as he had been taught in probation training-when testifying, keep your answers short, don't expound or give personal opinions.

Haley established that many times when Franks had appeared in Herrera's office, he had been accompanied by his wife, Judy. Herrera couldn't disagree with Haley's portrayal of Judy as a wife who tried to run her husband's business, often wanting to stay in with Ricky as he met with Herrera. He explained that occasionally Franks would ask his wife to leave and "get out of my business," but that she would soon return wanting to know about their discussions.

Judy Franks smiled as she listened to herself described as a meddling wife.

"She was kind of running the show, wasn't she?" Haley asked.

"She did a lot, yes, sir," Herrera admitted.

Haley seized the opportunity again to portray his client as somewhat slow, living with his in-laws, seldom holding down a job, and blaming Franks's situation on his mental capacity.

Greg Miller wasn't going to let Leon Haley's implications slide. On redirect he quickly addressed Franks's ability to communicate.

"On all these times you saw Richard Franks, were you able to carry on conversations with him?" Miller asked.

"Yes, sir, I was."

"Did you talk to him?" Miller continued.

"Yes, sir.

"Did you ever have any trouble communicating with him?" Miller wound down.

"No, sir."

"Thank you." Miller was finished, but Haley had two final questions.

"The bottom line is the one thing you knew is that he had some mental retardation. That's what you knew, isn't it?" Haley asked vigorously.

"I would say he's a slow learner," Herrera said firmly, finally having lost his initial nervousness.

"And with him being a slow learner, every once in a while, when you would have conversations with him, he wouldn't understand things and you would have to explain it to him. Isn't that fair?" Haley pressured Herrera.

"I probably had to explain some things to him," Herrera agreed.

Finally Herrera was excused. He drew in a deep breath and exhaled slowly. His testimony over, he was anxious to get back to Wise County.

The state's final witness was Lawrin Dean, a counselor at Psychotherapy Services. In 1999, Dean had conducted group therapy with about fourteen men, including Ricky Franks. She was cautious not to mention that the counseling sessions were for convicted sex offenders. Dean told the jury that Franks had last attended the group meeting on March 25, 1999, from 10:00 to 11:30 A.M., the day prior to Opal's abduction.

Miller, as well as many of the investigators on the case, believed some unknown factor had been the catalyst for Franks's violent behavior. Something had made him lose control, seek out a victim, and ultimately select Opal Jennings as the object of his wrath. Miller suspected that unknown factor may have been something said in Franks's last treatment session.

During the session Franks had become angry, so irate, in fact, that he had stormed out in the middle of the group session. It was the next afternoon that Opal Jennings was abducted.

During her testimony Lawrin Dean told the court that throughout the six months Franks was in counseling, he consistently had long, stringy hair, was skanky-looking, and unkempt. Although she remembered Franks's long, brownish blond hair under a cap, the counselor couldn't recall the color of the hat.

When Leon Haley began his questioning, he went straight to the main issue of their defense. "Ricky was a little bit slow, wasn't he?" Haley asked.

"He functioned fine," Dean replied.

Although Haley continued to pound the question of Franks's mental retardation, none of the witnesses for the state would concur that the accused kidnapper was anything more than slow.

Greg Miller and his prosecution team had other witnesses to call-in particular, experts who would refute the defense's allegations that Richard Lee Franks's retardation limited his mental capacity to that of a child. However, the prosecutors decided to hold them in reserve as rebuttal witnesses. They'd be called after anticipated defense testimony in support of Franks's alleged retardation. Therefore, Greg Miller rose and addressed the court.

"Your Honor, the state rests."

During what judge Gill called a "stretch break," members of the gallery mulled around the hall outside the courtroom. Many waited with much anticipation for the calling of the first defense witness, while others voiced their disappointment. The latter had been waiting with eager expectancy for some new revelation connecting Richard Lee Franks to the Opal Jennings case, some "smoking gun" to prove without a doubt that Franks had not only taken the girl ... but killed her.

Following the break, everyone took their seats as the defense called their first witness.

Judith Strine, an older, fair-skinned woman, walked to the witness stand to testify on behalf of Richard Franks. Strine nervously fidgeted as she awaited questions from Edward Jones. Jones planned to make her testimony quick and concise.

Jones asked the telephone assembler if she could tell the jury what she was doing on March 23, 1999, three days before Opal Jennings's disappearance.

"Me and my husband went to Saginaw, where I had had my wedding rings in pawn, and we had stopped between the Cash America and the Harvest Grocery Store. We were parked ..." Mrs. Strine began to ramble.

"Slow down and let me help you through this," Jones instructed. He wanted to ask specific questions and wanted Mrs. Strine to respond in such a way that the jury would be able to understand her entire testimony.

As instructed by Jones, Mrs. Strine stepped down from the witness-box and walked to a map displayed at the front of the courtroom. Before returning to her seat, she indicated with a large X where the grocery and Cash America pawnshop were located.

"What were you doing?" Jones asked.

"We were sitting in the car. I was trying to hurry him up because I wanted my wedding rings," Mrs. Strine said, referring to her husband. She explained they had pawned her jewelry for $150 needed cash. They had returned to the strip mall shop to reclaim thejew- elry when she noticed a woman and a child coming out of the IGA (Independent Grocer's Asso.) store.

"There was a gentleman that was following very closely to them," Mrs. Strine testified.

"Who noticed the man and the little girl and the older lady?" Jones asked.

"My husband. He noticed how pretty Opal's eyes were. He said, `That little girl has the prettiest blue eyes,"' Mrs. Strine remarked.

"What was the little girl doing? "Jones questioned.

"She was holding her grandmother's hand as they were coming out of the store," Mrs. Strine explained.

The witness stated she thought the little girl was about five or six years old.

"What brought your husband's attention to that person?" Jones asked, concerning the man who was seen walking closely behind the child.

"Because the gentleman was following so close to them, it was like he was just looking the little girl up and down, like any man would look a woman up and down," Mrs. Strine replied.

"How close was he standing to the little girl? "Jones asked.

"Not even that far apart," Mrs. Strine stated, raising her hands and holding them less than two feet apart.

"Give the jury a description of exactly what that man looked like," Jones instructed.

"He was five foot seven, brownish hair pulled back in a ponytail. His face looked like he had been working out in the sun. He had a dark complexion, wearing a red baseball hat. Apparently he'd been working out in the sun wearing sunglasses," Mrs. Strine said.

"Would you describe him as having a wrinkled face?"Jones asked.

"Yes, like somebody that had been out in the sun too long."

When Jones asked if the man appeared to be stalking the girl, Mrs. Strine concurred, stating that when the child and woman would stop, so would the man. When they continued on, he would follow. The witness implied that the stop-and-go behavior had occurred for several minutes before the man noticed her and her husband watching him from their car.

"How far away was he from you? "Jones questioned.

"From here to this lady here," Mrs. Strine said, pointing to the court reporter seated some five or six feet in front of her.