And Never See Her Again (23 page)

"One of the first things we established was a tip line, both an `eight hundred' number and a local number. We also established a post office box," Farrell explained. "One desk at the police department would get those leads. If they came in telephonically, they would complete a lead sheet. The lead sheet would then be routed to what was called an intelligence desk. They would look at it and try to assign initial priority to it based on the investigative plans that were going on at that time. And then the lead would be forwarded to case agents or supervisors, who would review that lead, verify the precedence that was put on it, and then decide what should be done about the tip.

"Daily, agents would come into that command post. They would receive leads from the lead box. There would be a morning briefing, where we discussed leads that were going on, different things that were occurring. And then there would be an evening briefing, where we'd do the same thing."

Through Farrell, Miller wanted the jury to understand the exact procedures taken with each lead that had been received by the task force. If they understood the care and precision that was taken with each lead, they would understand how the information concerning Ricky Franks had been handled.

Farrell continued by stating that lead sheets were three-part carbonless papers, assigned a priority of A, B, C, or D, with A being the highest priority. Leads were then put in various notebooks, based on a system developed for maintaining them. Farrell told the court that there had been some three thousand leads in the Opal Jennings case.

Answering questions concerning the car driven by the abductor, Farrell explained that the bureau utilized all witness descriptions of the kidnapper's vehicle used in the abduction to come up with a general description of the car.

"The vehicle description that we released was a dark-colored car, two-door or four-door, possibly a Chrysler product. I think there was also a description of possible rust spots on the vehicle," Farrell said. The FBI agent's coolness and authoritative delivery left no doubt he was a no-nonsense professional.

"Was there any discussion or information early on in the investigation that perhaps a Cougar may have been involved?" Miller asked.

As the FBI special agent testified, Ricky Franks sat quietly between his two attorneys. He showed little emotion, making observers wonder if he understood Farrell's testimony. It was clear to others that Greg Miller was attempting to put Ricky Franks's Mercury Cougar at the scene of the crime. Did Ricky Franks understand?

Farrell responded by stating that the boys playing ball in the street at the time of the kidnapping had mentioned seeing a dark Cougar in the neighborhood. He also confirmed that Spencer Williams had mentioned seeing a medallion-type figure on the car that had taken Opal away. Through Miller's questioning, Farrell was able to tell the jury that Franks's black Cougar had a medallion on the landau portion of the roof.

In reference to procedures the FBI utilized in processing Franks's vehicle for blood, hair, and fibers, Farrell stated that a spot near the right hip of the driver's seat was tested with luminol, as well as a subsequent field test, and the substance tested positive for the presence of blood. They had sent a swatch and the swabs from the tests not only to the FBI lab, but an independent lab as well. Along with the specimens from the driver's side, floor mats that had tested positive for the presence of blood were also sent to the two labs.

Farrell informed the jury that both the FBI lab and Lab Corp were concerned with the specimens due to the length of time between when Opal Jennings had been abducted and when Ricky Franks's car was processed. Five months in the hot Texas heat would surely have deteriorated any evidence that had been found. Likewise, in the five-month period in which Franks would have been driving the vehicle, fingerprints could have been wiped away and any hair or fibers vacuumed up. It wasn't a surprise to anyone in the gallery that not one shred of DNA linking Ricky Franks to Opal Jennings could be found in his black Cougar.

'When did you become aware of a lead pertaining to Richard Franks?" Miller asked.

"The lead was received early on at the command post, reviewed, and assigned a B priority, then put in the lead pool. When I really focused on it was at the time the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office contacted me," Farrell responded.

The FBI veteran stated that investigators had focused on A priority leads until July, when the FBI realized that there were leads that hadn't been addressed. Area agencies cooperated in addressing the leads in July and August 1999. Ricky Franks's name appeared on one of those lead sheets. It was discovered he had lived in the Saginaw area for about ten years, and that familiarity with the region increased interest in him as a person to be considered a suspect.

"Let's just sort of jump off into this area," Miller said, shifting the attention away from Ricky Franks momentarily. "Prior to the arrest of Richard Franks on August 17, 1999, had there been a couple of other people that you had looked at fairly heavy on this case?"

"Yes, there were," Farrell answered.

"Was one of those individuals a man by the name of Jackie Lee Richardson?" Miller asked.

Spectators whispered to one another in hushed tones. Who was Jackie Lee Richardson? And how did he fit into the Opal Jennings case?

"Yes."

During Miller's direct examination of Farrell, the jury learned that, after receiving a call concerning Richardson, Farrell himself had interviewed Richardson concerning Opal's abduction. Richardson had been cooperative and had provided hair samples for testing.

Farrell explained that at the time of the investigation, Richardson was driving a Buick Regal two-door, brown in color, with a torn-off landau roof. Farrell had first seen the vehicle off State Highway 121 and Haltom Road. The car had been pushed up into the trees, generally undetectable from the road.

"The battery was gone from the vehicle. The cap over the master cylinder and the engine were gone. The interior was torn apart. It had a small doughnut tire on the driver's side, rear of the vehicle," Farrell explained.

"Did it appear to you that the vehicle was operable?" Miller asked.

Muffled snickers could be heard from the rear of the courtroom. Two men covered their mouths as they suppressed laughter at the obvious answer to Miller's question.

"No, sir," Farrell said.

Farrell established that when he had found Richardson's vehicle, he didn't believe it had been involved in Opal's abduction. In addition, Richardson was fully cooperative, had a corroborated alibi, and his only form of transportation on the day of Opal Jennings's kidnapping was a bicycle.

Farrell stated that Jackie Lee Richardson had been excluded as a possible suspect in the case, both by alibi and lack of physical evidence. The FBI agent named other men who had been investigated as the kidnapper, but they, too, had been excluded from any further suspicion.

"Did you try to eliminate Richard Franks as a suspect?" Miller asked.

"Yes, sir."

"Were you able to do that?" Miller questioned.

"We were not," Farrell stated.

Andy Farrell's testimony was tedious but important. Miller needed for the jury to understand how Ricky Franks had come to the attention of the task force and why he instantly became a person of interest. Farrell told the filled courtroom that two of the methods used to eliminate persons from suspicion were a substantiated alibi and lack of physical evidence linking them to Opal. He emphasized that, in reference to Ricky Franks, an alibi could not be established. Only Opal Jennings could verify if Ricky Franks was telling the truth about their encounter as he described it.

Miller lastly asked Farrell if he had learned that Franks had a number of jobs, had a valid Texas driver's license, and was married, demonstrating to the jury that Richard Franks, although often described as slow, was perfectly capable of sustaining a normal life.

Judge Gill could see that the jury was ready for a break. Eyes were heavy, bodies slumped. Just after Miller passed his witness to the defense for crossexamination, judge Gill announced it was time to recess for lunch. As the families and friends of both Ricky Franks and Opal Jennings scurried to find a nearby place to eat, Franks was taken to a holding cell at the rear of the courtroom, where he would be given a meal tray and told he could rest before court was called back to order.

Greg Miller took the crowded elevator to his sixthfloor office, where he would eat lunch, if time permit ted. The anxious prosecutor always returned to his office during the noon hour when in trial. He would go over notes, talk with witnesses, plan strategy. Only when he was satisfied with his preparation would Miller take a Lean Cuisine from his small office refrigerator, pop it in his microwave, and sit down for a few minutes of rest. But more often than not, Miller would settle for drinking a diet Coke and skip eating altogether.

Following the noon recess, Edward Jones was slated to cross-examine Special Agent Farrell. It was expected to be a lengthy cross, considering Farrell had been in charge of the huge investigation.

After a few initial queries, Ed Jones focused his questioning on Spencer Williams and his description of the vehicle driven by Opal's abductor.

"Spencer was taken to CarMax and asked to point to a vehicle that was the same body style as the one involved in [the] abduction; isn't that true?" Jones asked.

"Yes," Farrell answered.

"He pointed to a Chrysler New Yorker as the body style of the car; isn't that true?"Jones inquired.

"Yes," Farrell said, "I think it was also based on the emblem."

"That's true. Based on the emblem," Jones repeated, energized that the FBI agent was leading him down the road of questioning he had intended to travel. "Isn't it true that Spencer said it had a star on the trunk?"

"Yes."

"You know that Dodge and Chrysler both have the star on the back of the trunk above the keyhole," Jones stated.

"That's correct."

Jones went through Spencer's full description of the car, including the shiny wheels and the back half of the roof being brown.

"And so, isn't it true that Spencer's identification of the vehicle doesn't match with the vehicles that have been shown to the jury? Isn't that true?"Jones pressed.

"Yes."

Jones felt he had made a significant point and raised more than enough reasonable doubt in the minds of the jury. Jones moved on to the suspect's description.

Farrell acknowledged that Spencer Williams had told authorities the man was not white, not black, but a dark male. Other persons, too, had told investigators it was a dark-complexioned man, some even stated it was an older male with a wrinkled face.

After casting uncertainty as to the description of the perpetrator, Jones moved on to the number of suspects that could possibly be considered in the case, citing that a large NASCAR race being held at Texas Motor Speedway, mere minutes from Saginaw, had an estimated two hundred to three hundred thousand additional people in the area at the time Opal was taken. Then there was a teenage jogger who had spoken to a Hispanic male with a loose ponytail who had stopped to ask for directions. The man had caused the girl to become fearful. The time had been about 5:15 P.M. and the location was about a quarter of a mile from where Opal was taken, approximately fifteen minutes later.

Jones introduced additional sightings of similar automobiles, other Hispanic males seen in the neighborhood, and varying accounts of what the vehicle first identified as the getaway car looked like. The defense attorney talked about other attempted abduc tions in the area and other suspects investigated by the task force. Farrell's cross-examination was intended to present doubt in the minds of jurors, and to have them ask key questions. Was Ricky Franks, a non-Hispanic man, the real kidnapper? Exactly what was the accurate description of the car the abductor was driving? Only time would tell if Jones had developed skepticism in the jurors' minds, but at least some Sanderford family members themselves were beginning to question Franks's guilt.

In closing, Jones asked Agent Farrell, "Would you agree with me that there is a lack of physical evidence against Ricky?"

"That's a true statement, yes," Farrell admitted.

After Ed Jones passed Andy Farrell back to Greg Miller, and before he had made it back to his seat, Miller was on his feet ready to correct any misnomers that may have been instilled in the jurors' minds.

"Please tell the jury who saw the abduction of Opal Jennings," Miller stressed in an effort to have jurors disregard the other persons who had seen one or more Hispanic males in the area at the time of the kidnapping.

"Spencer Williams and Opal's two-year-old cousin," Farrell replied.

"Prior to the defendant's arrest you got approximately twenty-three hundred leads. After Richard Franks was arrested, tell the jury how many leads came in concerning Richard Franks and his background," Miller continued, with a renewed fire in his belly.

"The majority of the additional seven hundred leads that we received related to Mr. Franks and/or information about him," Farrell responded.

Miller recapped Spencer Williams's varying descriptions of the car that was used to whisk his friend Opal away. "Has Spencer been relatively consistent on his description of the man that took Opal Jennings?" Miller asked.

"On the man, he has been, yes," Farrell acknowledged.

After having Farrell go over, point by point, Spencer Williams's rendition of the events of March 26, 1999, Miller asked one final question.

"Do you think Spencer Williams was mixed-up when he said Opal was kidnapped?"

"No, sir," Farrell answered.

Farrell was excused and jurors took a long, deep breath as the prosecution prepared to call another witness.

"Call Jesse Herrera," Miller announced.

From the back of the courtroom, a small, darkskinned Hispanic man walked toward the witness chair. No one seemed to know who he was, but Jesse Herrera was a name known to the Franks family. As a convicted sex offender, Franks had met with Herrera twice a month for two years in Herrera's office at the Wise County Courthouse. The two men had gotten along reasonably well, although Franks was unwilling to follow many of Herrera's directives.