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• A trial like no other

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

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

RADFORD -- After a two-week trial, a jury on Friday found photographer Bob Shell guilty of involuntary manslaughter and seven other charges related to the death of Marion Franklin, and recommended he serve more than 32 years in prison.

Shell, 60, had been charged with felony homicide for accidentally killing the 19-year-old model by giving her a lethal dose of morphine at his West Main Street studio June 3, 2003.

But the jury convicted Shell of a lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter instead of the homicide charge, meaning they determined his negligence led to Franklin's death.

"We are very pleased with today's verdict and relieved that the nightmare that began for us on June 3, 2003, has finally come to an end," Franklin's mother, Deborah Franklin, and half sister, Katie Kragiel, said in a handwritten statement.

Franklin's father, Dale Franklin, died Monday of liver disease.

"We just wish he had been able to see justice done," Deborah Franklin said Friday.

It took the jury of seven women and five men more than 12 hours of deliberating Thursday and Friday to reach verdicts on the eight charges against Shell and another three hours to agree on sentencing, finally returning just after 8 p.m. Friday.

Shell faced a minimum of six years in prison and a maximum of 131 on the eight charges. Circuit Judge Joey Showalter will decide at a hearing Oct. 26 whether to accept the jury's recommendation of a total of 32 years and six months and a $5,000 fine.

The jury recommended Shell serve eight years for involuntary manslaughter, seven for attempted forcible sodomy, four each for two counts of attempted animate object sexual penetration, five years for one count of distributing morphine and six months on another, three years for possessing morphine and one year for distributing diazepam.

Shell, who stood with his hands clasped behind his back and showed no reaction as the verdicts were read, was handcuffed by deputies and led quietly out of the courtroom afterward. He was to be taken to the New River Valley Regional Jail in Dublin, deputies said.

Before the jury recommended its sentence, Shell told jurors he was devastated by Franklin's death.

"My life won't be much anymore but I wish there was a way to talk to her again," he said. "I miss her terribly."

A medical examiner testified during the trial that Franklin died of a morphine overdose, and bondage practitioners Susanne Coutts and Ruben Bowman testified that they saw Shell squeeze an eyedropper full of what they believed to be morphine into Franklin's wine glass the day she died.

They also testified he put a few drops of the same liquid into Coutts' glass.

Shell, in 4 1/2 hours of testimony Wednesday, said it was actually the herbal supplement echinacea that he squeezed into their glasses, but the jury apparently didn’t believe his story.

Franklin’s family members, several Radford police officers and Commonwealth’s Attorney Chris Rehak cried when jurors returned with guilty verdicts for Shell.

“It’s a good day for justice but a great day for Marion and her family,” Rehak said later. “It’s an honor and a privilege to represent Marion’s life and the last few hours of it in this criminal proceeding.”

Rehak was the second prosecutor assigned to the case, and Jonathon Venzie was the third defense attorney.

Shell’s trial originally had been scheduled for March 2004 but was postponed numerous times over the years.

During the trial, Rehak said Shell was a predator and that he gave Franklin morphine so she wouldn’t wake up while he took advantage of her. Franklin was already dead, he said, in photos Shell took of himself touching her.

Venzie had argued that police developed a theory about what happened as soon as they walked into Shell’s studio the night Franklin died and then altered or deleted evidence, including photos and e-mails, to make it appear a reality.

Shell and Franklin were in love, he said, and Shell was trying to get her help to get off drugs.

After Friday’s hearing, Venzie said he was disappointed he apparently wasn’t able to adequately explain his position to jurors.

“When you’ve got a case that’s as close to 50-50 as this one,” he said, “one side has to lose.”

Radford Police Chief Gary Harmon said after the hearing he was proud of his officers, who could easily have written Franklin’s death off as a regular drug overdose when “something more sinister” was taking place.

After the jury had convicted Shell and before it began to discuss sentencing, Deborah Franklin took the witness stand.

“I’m sorry that you never saw another side of Marion,” she said. “I know she had a lot of problems but she was only 19 and she had a lot of years to get over those problems.”

Asked later what she would have liked the jury to see, Deborah Franklin said her daughter was a smart, caring girl with a great sense of humor.

“She was just fun and funny,” she said.

“She was trying so hard to get her life together” and had talked about going to school to learn photography, Kragiel said.

The pair said they felt like Shell was their best witness in the case, with the conflicting stories he gave during taped police interviews and then Wednesday from the witness stand.

Deborah Franklin said she was glad Shell will likely spend the rest of his life in prison.

“He’s never said he was sorry for what he has done.”