Sniper jurors cry over 911 call

VIRGINIA BEACH — At least three jurors in the John Allen Muhammad sniper trial wept openly as they listened to a recording of a 911 call from William Franklin moments after his wife, FBI analyst Linda Franklin, had been gunned down Oct. 14 last year.

“My wife’s been shot,” Mr. Franklin, 47, screamed in the emergency call, his voice so frantic and high-pitched that the dispatcher mistook him for a woman.

His uncontrollable sobbing and labored breathing punctuated the three-minute recording, and Mr. Franklin could not give the dispatcher basic information. Prince William Circuit Court Judge LeRoy F. Millette Jr. denied a defense request not to play the recording and warned those in the courtroom to leave if they did not want to hear the call.

Mr. Franklin, who was present to testify, was the only one to walk out. He returned after it had been played.

Some jurors got red-eyed as they listened to the tape and looked over at Mrs. Franklin’s daughter, Katrina Hannum, who remained in the courtroom after testifying earlier. Mrs. Hannum, in tears, kept her head down.

Mr. Muhammad’s fellow suspect, Lee Boyd Malvo, will be tried next month on murder charges in the shooting death of Mrs. Franklin, who was slain outside a Home Depot in Fairfax County.

In the 911 recording, the dispatcher could be heard trying to calm Mr. Franklin. “Ma’am, you’ve got to calm down, so I can get this information from you,” the dispatcher said. “Your wife is shot?”

Mr. Franklin was heard struggling to catch his breath.

“Where is she shot?” the dispatcher asked.

Mr. Franklin composed himself just enough to blurt out, “She’s shot in the head,” and then broke into sobs. He handed the phone to an unidentified man who gave the dispatcher their location.

Fairfax County police Officer Eduardo Azcavate, who arrived first on the scene, testified that he found Mr. Franklin with his head on his wife’s stomach.

“He was wailing over her abdomen area. He was kneeling on the ground,” said Officer Azcavate, adding that it took him several moments before he could touch Mr. Franklin on the shoulder and escort him away.

A former Marine, Mr. Franklin showed no emotion yesterday during testimony. He met Mrs. Franklin in Okinawa, Japan, and married her nine years ago. The couple was loading a long shelf into the car when Mrs. Franklin was shot. They were buying supplies for their new apartment.

Mrs. Franklin, a breast-cancer survivor and grandmother-to-be, was the 11th person shot and the ninth killed in the Washington area’s three-week sniper rampage last October. The bullet entered the left side of her head and exited the right, destroying the upper right part of her skull and face.

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