Man gets 39-year term for shooting girlfriend to death in west Modesto

Mary Alton says her sister, Jacqueline Millan, was the victim of an abusive relationship. She called Millan’s boyfriend, Tom Franks, a selfish man for shooting her sister to death during an argument outside his west Modesto home.

“If you could not have her, you didn’t want anyone else to,” Alton told Franks in a Stanislaus County courtroom earlier this month.

On Tuesday, Franks, 46, was sentenced to 39 years and 8 months in prison. A jury on Oct. 10 found him guilty of voluntary manslaughter for shooting Millan.

She was shot about 9:40 p.m. May 4, 2012, while standing near the edge of a driveway at a home the couple had been renovating in the 1600 block of Vernon Avenue, a few blocks northeast of Paradise and Carpenter roads. The 48-year-old woman died at a hospital six days later.

Millan’s family on Nov. 12 had an opportunity to speak in court about the impact of her death. Alton sat at a table a few feet away from the man convicted of killing her sister.

She had with her a photo of her sister and her sister’s gravesite. “And she’s there because of him,” Alton told the judge two weeks ago.

The grieving sister told the defendant that the only thing that would make her feel better is for him to acknowledge what he did and accept responsibility. Franks did not speak during the hearing earlier this month or during his sentencing this week.

Deputy District Attorney Annette Rees on Tuesday asked the judge to impose the maximum sentence. She called the case a classic example of domestic violence, in which the victim would minimize the abuse suffered and return to the relationship.

“This was clearly a case of domestic violence that did, in fact, lead to a homicide,” Rees argued.

In October, the prosecutor told the jury that Franks fired a gun three times at Millan, missing her twice, from where he stood near his garage. But one bullet struck her head and fragmented in her brain.

Ultimately, Franks told investigators that he and Millan had argued earlier that night at a Paradise Road home. He said he left and went to the Vernon Avenue home. Millan showed up later, he said, banging on the door and accusing him of cheating with another woman.

Franks said a struggle ensued and Millan was swinging at him on the home’s front porch. The struggle moved to the front yard before Franks bear-hugged her. Franks told investigators he heard a gunshot before he let go of Millan and went back in the house.

The defendant said he last saw Millan walking toward the street. He told investigators he went to sleep and didn’t check on her.

Franks was out on bail when he shot his girlfriend. He was charged with arson in the burning of the garage at his Vernon Avenue home in a domestic violence incident that escalated.

Rees argued that there were no mitigating factors to grant Franks a reduced sentence. She called the defendant a habitual criminal. But Millan often would give him another chance, the prosecutor said, even signing a document asking prosecutors to drop the arson charge.

Michael Scheid, Franks’ attorney, argued for a reduced sentence. In his closing argument to the jury, Scheid said there was no evidence his client had a gun that night. The gun used to kill Millan was never found, and investigators found no gunshot residue on Franks when he was found inside the house about two hours after the shooting.

When the verdict was announced, one juror said she did not agree that Franks used a gun during the crime, even though a forensic pathologist testified that Millan died from a single gunshot wound. There was no evidence indicating Millan died any other way.

The judge sent the jurors back to the deliberation room because they did not have a unanimous verdict on the enhancement of using a gun. The jury returned to the courtroom about 10 minutes later with a unanimous verdict on the gun enhancement.

Superior Court Judge Ricardo Córdova told the attorneys that the maximum sentence was appropriate in this case based the defendant’s prior seven felony convictions. He said this case involved great violence and a high degree of cruelty.

Franks’ sentence included eight months for pleading no contest to the arson charge.

“Needless bickering with a gun led to tragic consequences,” the judge told the defendant. “You’ll have a lot of time to think about that.”

This story was originally published November 25, 2014 at 4:52 PM with the headline "Man gets 39-year term for shooting girlfriend to death in west Modesto."