McShane acknowledged that Franklin’s diagnoses of post traumatic stress disorder, agoraphobia and bipolar disorder had impacted his life and ability to hold a job. “That’s how they would’ve impacted, I think, anyone who got them.”įranklin has a long history of mental illness without the appropriate treatment, according to records Hermansen filed as part of the court record. I’d probably go and do something I’d never imagine. “If those letters had been sent to me, I’d have my family in a hotel that night. McShane said during the hearing he’s a member of the LBGTQ community. “Hermansen, I have received explicit threats that would not have horrified me as much as if I had received those,” McShane said. District Court Judge Michael McShane interrupted. They don’t say ‘I’m going to do this -.’” “The letters aren’t an explicit threat,” Hermansen said. Kurt Hermansen, an assistant federal public defender and Franklin’s attorney, pushed back on the insinuation that Franklin committed a hate crime. The professor added that not calling this a hate crime was semantics. They later backed off “given the lack of case law and the burden of proof.” Federal prosecutors didn’t charge the case as a hate crime, though initially sought a “hate crime motivation” sentencing enhancement. This is its own type of cruel terrorism.”įranklin’s defense argued it was not a hate crime because the letters amounted to threats and did not “willfully cause bodily injury,” as the federal statute requires. It’s another thing to not know who the perpetrator is. “It’s horrible knowing someone hates me and wants to kill me. “We didn’t know who wanted to kill us,” the woman said. When the FBI searched Franklin’s residence they also found a similar trunk.ĭuring Monday’s sentencing hearing, the college professor testified that she was terrified for months until the FBI arrested Franklin. With the envelopes, there was another photocopy of a dismembered person inside a storage trunk. Inside the cover of the book “Medicolegal Investigation of Death: Guidelines for the Application of Pathology to Crime Investigation,” the FBI found a third envelope addressed to AV1 at an old address in Astoria. They also found evidence he ran a white supremacy website. When the FBI searched Franklin’s home, they found two firearms, body armor, multiple knives and books on death, torture and sexually motivated killings. She was targeted in part because of her sexual orientation.” “He made her afraid for the safety of herself and her family that she or them would be mutilated, tortured or murdered. Attorney Adam Delph argued in court Monday. “Franklin made clear, calculated and specific choices when he threatened the victim with violent death and dismemberment,” Assistant U.S. The second letter, which AV1 did not receive, had a photo of a dismembered woman’s body stuffed into a trunk. Under the photo, Franklin wrote, “Don’t think for a second that I forgot about you.” State police later found Franklin’s fingerprints on the letter, which also contained the words: “What I’d like to do to you.” One included a picture of Diane Whipple’s body, a lesbian killed in 2001 by dogs owned by the attorneys for the Aryan Brotherhood, a white supremacy group. In December 2020, Franklin sent the first of two letters to the community college professor. The professor asked Franklin not to wear it again, noting it was particularly offensive given the nature of the class. Department of Justice stated in court documents.Īround 2010, Franklin took a class taught by a professor identified in court documents as “Adult Victim 1.” He wore a jacket with a “large swastika symbol” on the back to an intercultural communications class, federal prosecutors stated in court records. Franklin targeted a community college professor in part because of her sexual orientation, the U.S.
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