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Thursday, August 23, 2007

Shell trial: Accounts focus on drug bottle

Photographer Bob Shell's attorney targeted the credibility of witnesses in the homicide case.

marion franklin

Marion Franklin was doing a bondage photo shoot the day she died.

bob shell

Bob Shell is charged with supplying the morphine that caused Marion Franklin's death.

Related

Charges filed against Bob Shell in the death of Marion Franklin:

  • Felony homicide
  • Three counts of defilement of a dead human body
  • Two counts of attempted sexual penetration with an animate object
  • Attempted forcible sodomy
  • Two counts of distribution of a Schedule II drug
  • Possession of a Schedule II drug
  • Distribution of a Schedule IV drug

RADFORD -- Bob Shell's lawyer began attacking the credibility of the prosecution's witnesses Wednesday, getting two to admit they withheld information from police and suggesting one officer was demoted for making a mistake during the investigation into Shell.

In the second day of testimony in the trial, which is scheduled to last through next week, jurors heard from two people who were among the last to see 19-year-old model Marion Franklin alive. They also saw a 52-minute videotape shot as Franklin was tied in bondage for a photo shoot the day she died.

Shell, 60, is on trial for felony homicide and 10 other charges related to Franklin's death on June 3, 2003. The photographer is charged with supplying the morphine on which Franklin overdosed.

Wednesday, Susanne Coutts and her former boyfriend, Ruben Bowman, both testified that while they were in Shell's studio on West Main Street that day they saw Shell put a dropperful of liquid they believed to be morphine into Franklin's wine glass.

But Bowman testified that Shell gave Franklin morphine early in the day, before Franklin took part in a photo shoot, while Coutts said it was later in the afternoon.

The two bondage practitioners also testified that at some point that day, Shell said the bottle was missing and Bowman and Coutts helped him look for it. Shell later found the bottle, though it's unclear where.

Bowman said he remembers Shell saying the bottle was empty when he found it. Coutts said the bottle was at least one-third full when Shell gave her some morphine from it at about 5 p.m., as she was leaving. At the time, she and Bowman both said, Franklin was asleep on a bed in the studio.

The bottle is a key issue in the trial, and the defense has tried at previous hearings to keep it from being admitted as evidence. At issue is how much Franklin could have ingested and whether the jury will place the responsibility of her overdose on Shell. Also at issue is whether anyone could have tampered with the bottle as it changed hands.

Hours after Franklin died, Bowman and Coutts were questioned by police. In statements, both said they didn't see anyone using drugs in the studio.

Under cross-examination by defense attorney Jonathon Venzie, both said Wednesday that they lied to police because they were afraid they could get into trouble themselves.

Coutts said she offered to cooperate if granted full immunity from prosecution for consensual sex acts she performed with Franklin. She was granted immunity and later "filled in the gaps that I had not previously filled in in my statement," she said.

At one point Venzie asked Bowman if the jury could rely on his account. Bowman said he wasn't sure.

"I don't forget everything, just a lot of things," he said.

Venzie also questioned accounts given by two men who were among the Radford police officers investigating Franklin's death.

Officer David Trail said he was the first to arrive at 239 West Main Street after Shell called 911. Trail was on the witness stand only briefly and immediately admitted that his testimony Wednesday could differ from testimony he gave several months ago.

"I've been playing this over and over in my head," he said.

Venzie asked Officer Gary Fields, who is now a Christiansburg officer but was a Radford detective at the time of Franklin's death, about his attempt to gain evidence against Shell by posing as someone else.

Fields admitted that no one authorized him to pose as Jeff Tate, a wealthy pornography connoisseur. Fields corresponded with Shell for more than two months by e-mail in what came to be known as the "Jeff Tate sting."

It came to light in previous hearings that Fields posed as an admirer of Shell's bondage photography and offered to make a six-figure donation to Shell's defense fund if Shell would agree to take photos of his fictitious wife and discuss the events that led to Franklin's death.

Fields has said he stopped contacting Shell after former Radford Commonwealth's Attorney Randal Duncan, who is now a general district judge, told him to.

Asked about the sting Wednesday, Fields said he was a new police officer at the time and didn't realize what he was doing was wrong.

He has since realized it was, he said.

Fields said that when he left the Radford department in 2005, he was no longer a detective but a road officer.

"That sounds like you were demoted," Venzie told him.

"I requested to go back to the road," Fields said.

Several more Radford officers are expected to testify for the prosecution, starting this morning with Capt. Jim Lawson.

Commonwealth's Attorney Chris Rehak said he plans to play a taped interview between Lawson and Shell that lasted more than an hour.

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