To my right, I sat next to a very nice female producer for ABC world news called Sherene Tagharobi who was typing away at the speed of light. I gave her as much information (for the past 5 years and 7 months) as I could on Franklin and also the media circus that's been going on in the Courtroom over the years.
Just after 9.15am Lonnie Franklin was brought in wearing a baby blue dress shirt and black glasses. I've certainly never seen him looking like that before, but it was for the sake of the Jurors of course.
The Bailiff called the Court to order and Judge Kennedy asked Counsel to state their appearances:
Kristen Gozawa, Seymour Amster and Dale Alterton were representing the Defense and for 'The People' were D.A's Marguerite Rizzo and Beth Silverman and Daryn Dupree with the Los Angeles Police Department.
Right out of the gate Seymour Amster had filed a motion, as always. This time he had an issue with handcuffs and ID badges and he wanted to make sure that the case is going to be tried only on merits alone... it was a muffled conversation as they all gathered around the Judge's bench. When they broke away, Judge Kennedy came back 'requesting that The People do not mention anything about the pictures of any of the other potential victims', to which Beth Silverman retorted in her usual way that they have no intention of mentioning the other victims.
Within a few moments, 17 Jurors filed in. There were about 3 Black females, a few Asians, about 7 were ethnically ambiguous and about 4 were White. 9 women and 8 men made up the Jurors.
At 9.26am Judge Kathleen Kennedy began speaking, firstly welcoming the Jurors to her Courtroom. She stated that there were 11 Jurors and 6 alternates present. One Juror had to drop out so she selected the alternate Juror to stand in by selecting a random number out of 6 numbers. She chose number 68, an Asian gentlemen and asked him to move to his new assigned seat for the Trial. She told him that "You've just won the lottery!" (Relating to now being appointed as a Juror on this Trial). Poor bugger I thought!
She then stated she wanted to give the Jurors some instructions and the procedures of the Trial. After about 16 minutes she finished talking to the Jurors and addressed the Court saying how hot it was in the Courtroom. It's true we were all sweating and a lot of the females were fanning themselves with books. One lady asked for me to tear a page out of my note book so she could fan herself, so I obliged.
District Attorney Beth Silverman gave a very good and powerful opening statement explaining to the Jury that
"The evidence in this case will tell a story, a story of a serial killer who stalked the streets of South Los Angeles. A serial killer who is responsible for the murders of 10 women and the willful, deliberate, pre-meditated attempted murder on an 11th. All of these crimes occurring between 1985 up until 2007."
She went on to say that in South Central in the 80's there was an epidemic of crack cocaine. It is a highly addictive and very destructive drug. It was cheap and extremely potent and, when it first came out, had a higher purity than powder cocaine. It's distribution and use exploded in 1980's in South Central Los Angeles. It left a path of destruction in this area, people lost their jobs, homes, their families and their lives by overdosing. Some women would risk everything to acquire more of this drug. Some women were willing to sell their bodies and their souls to get their next high. This drug made people extremely vulnerable and those that wanted to take advantage would do so. It was perfect for someone who lived there, knew these kinds of women, knew the area and where prostitutes would congregate, someone who knew the alley ways and could prey on these types of women, someone like the defendant. It was a perfect place and time for a serial killer to roam the streets without detection.
Silverman explained in great detail how these women were dumped like pieces of trash in filthy alleyways with dirty mattresses on top of them. Some were left to rot. Most were shot at close range, one was strangled and also shot. One of the youngest victims, Princess Berthomieux was only 15 when she was brutally murdered. All victims were in a state of undress and some were completely naked when they were found. None had Id's on them, most had cocaine and alcohol in their system, most had a history of prostitution. All were African American and all were shot with the same firearm. All were shot with the same .25 caliber automatic firearm and they were shot at a different location then dumped at another location which is called a 'body dump'. Every single one of them is connected to the same serial killer either by DNA evidence or firearm evidence or both.
"And that serial killer ladies and gentlemen, is the Defendant, Lonnie Franklin". Silverman said in a very slow and controlled manner.
The killings seemed to end in 1988 when Enietra Washington survived, but they resumed in 2002, 2003 and in 2007.
Using the Projector, we were shown very graphic slides of the dead women and close ups on the bullet holes in their skin.
We saw all 10 of them in various states of undress and decomposition.
It was so sad because right in front of me was the bench filled with Monique Alexander's direct family members. Her father, Porter Alexander, now in his mid 70's was only in his 40's when his daughter was murdered. Her brothers and father and mother have been coming to the Court hearings over the past 5 ++ years like clockwork, rarely ever missing a day. Yet today Monique's mother broke down in tears when her daughter's naked body was enlarged on the wall of the Courtroom showing how badly she was decomposed and the shocking way in which she was left. Porter, her father, had to leave the room. Words don't express how sorry I am as one cannot truly understand their pain. I can handle seeing crime scene pictures of any degree, however I was silently overcome with tears when Mrs Alexander suddenly broke down in uncontrollable tears. That part I was not strong enough to handle.
I sat next to two of Lonnie Franklin's neighbours who had known him for over 26 years. One of them, Ricky, he was there today as he wanted to "punch Nick Broomfield in the face", he said, for twisting his appearance in his Documentary. This is precisely why I had to legally extract myself from Broomfield's documentary, after shooting with him for days, because I did not want to get twisted again by the media. Ricky had trusted Broomfield to portray him correctly but, what he told me today, is that his part was spliced so badly in editing that it made him look like he said the complete opposite of what he was meaning. Ricky is not very trusting with anyone but he has said he will interview me for my book, so fingers crossed that tomorrow I can put him on tape.
Detective Kilcoyne was the first witness called to the stand. Kilcoyne is retired from the LAPD and had served 36 years with the force. He's investigated over 1000 investigations and of them, 4 to 500 were murder cases. He was the lead investigator and supervisor in the task force that was formed in 2007 for the purpose of investigating a series of murders in 2002, 2003 and 2007. There were 8 people on his task force. They made a DNA connection of these murders in the 2000's also to murders in the 80's - 1985 -1988 to be exact. DNA wasn't even thought of in the 80's but at that time they did have sexual assault kits, blood work and forensic evidence which was all tested again later when DNA came out.
Outside of the Courtroom I spoke with a number of family members of the victims and other news stations were there getting their stories too. I won't mention names of those I spoke to outside of the Courtroom (as I was asked not to do so) so I will wait until I have permission.
To be continued....
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