Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Dad Kills Daughter Over Fight About Smoking: Prosecutor

Episode Date: January 31, 2025

Heather Thompson, 24, was shot and killed earlier this week at her home outside of Cincinnati. Heather lived with her father, Franklin Thompson, and younger sister. An assistant prosecutor said during an arraignment that Franklin admitted to shooting Heather as they argued over smoking in the house. Franklin's arrest was recorded by body-worn cameras and deputies found a gun in his pocket. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy looks at the case in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Download the FREE Upside App at https://upside.app.link/crimefix to get an extra 25 cents back for every gallon on your first tank of gas.Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest:Jay Clark https://www.instagram.com/notguilty4192/ CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Put your hands, put your hands up, bud. Frank? Is your name Frank? Deputies surround a man walking down the street after they say he shot and killed his own daughter. I have the body camera video from the sad case out of Ohio and why prosecutors say it all started over an argument over smoking. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Franklin Thompson is in jail in Cincinnati, Ohio, charged with one count of murder.

Body worn cameras recorded his arrest, and you are going to see that in just a bit. The Hamilton County Sheriff says that Thompson shot his young daughter during an argument early Monday morning. Heather Thompson was 24 years old. Her Facebook page said that she worked as a pharmacy technician and lived with her 64-year-old father and younger sister. A neighbor called 911 after hearing gunshots. It is as soon as you turn off Phil Dirtle onto 6th Avenue. I don't know the guy's name other than his first name's Frank. Me and my husband, we heard what sounded like gunshots probably an hour ago. And this neighborhood's known to let off fireworks

randomly. So we were like, that was a weird firework. That neighbor went on to describe what she heard coming PD on scene at 12172. Okay, there's cars parked in front and we couldn't tell if there was EMS. Yeah, I mean, they're pulling up right now. PD just got there right before you called. Okay, I'm hearing sirens. All right, I just wanted to make sure. We were just worried. Sadly, that screaming was coming from Heather Thompson's younger sister, who had called 911 first. She was trying desperately to save her sister's life with the help of a 911 call taker. Listen to me. Ambulance is on the way. You're going to have to listen to my instructions. We're going to start CPR. Put the phone next to the patient. Put me on speakerphone. Listen carefully.

Is she flat on her back, on the floor, or a hard surface? Heather Thompson's sister performed CPR until EMTs arrived, and deputies then pulled up. Sheriff's office, stop! Stop! Stop! Get on the ground! Get on the ground! Hurry, this is them. We have a gunpoint. Stay down. Oh my God! Get down on the ground! On a gunpoint. Get down on the ground. Hurry, this is him. We have a gunpoint. Get out on the ground. Get out on the ground. Get all the way down. Put your hands, put your hands up, bud. Frank, is your name Frank? That was indeed Frank Thompson.

Deputies found him walking down the street from his house after they'd looked for him for some time. Give me another pair of cuffs. Frank? Is your name Frank? Is your name Frank? Yep. That's been a while. I already gave you the custody. Huh? You got anything on you Frank? Where's it at?

In my coat pocket. Which coat pocket? The other side? I don't want to cut stage 229. Where's it at? In my coat pocket. Which coat pocket? Or the other side? I want to take a break from this just incredibly devastating story to tell you about one of our sponsors. It's Upside. It's a free app that will get you cash back on things like gas, groceries, and restaurants. This is real cash back.

It's money that appears in your Upside app that you can transfer straight into your bank account. I've used Upside at places like Dunkin' Donuts. When I needed a cup of tea, I've claimed an offer for Dunkin' on the app, paid as usual, and followed the steps. Then I got cash back. It's really easy. You can also use Upside at places like Shell, Exxon, Taco Bell, Chipotle, and that's just to name a few. To find out how much you could earn, click the link in the description to download Upside or scan the QR code that's on your screen and use our promo code CRIMEFIX to get an extra 25 cents back on every gallon on your first tank of gas. That's promo code CRIMEFIX for extra cash back. Frank Thompson has a gun in his pocket. Remember, the sheriff said he shot his daughter during an argument

and then walked out of the house. They found him walking down the street. Is that the pocket the gun's in, Frank? Yep, I feel the trigger. All right. Unload it? Yep. Anything else? Any other weapons on you, Frank? Knives? Now you saw the deputy put the gun in the evidence bag, and that's not all they found. You can mark the location in custody as 1-2-1-3-6-7. And I didn't copy your lights. To the left side, where are your lights at? Yeah.

All right, I got a question. One, two, one, three, six, seven. Does he need a squad or a few? Sir, do you need an ambulance or anything to check you? Frank? Mm-hmm. I think we're good for now. Okay.

Negative on the squad. We're good for now. You got smokes up in the coat pocket? What's this? A large cigarette. Somebody want to Mirandize him real quick? You probably heard the deputy ask Frank Thompson whether he had smokes, cigarettes in his pocket. He said they were in his T-shirt. That will become important as the investigation moves forward. Now back to the body camera video.

Let's walk up the street. I just checked the park again. I checked the port-a-potties. Where'd you come from, Frank? Where were you walking from? We're walking. We're walking. Frank Thompson, he doesn't resist, and deputies find more that piques their interest.

I'll pick him up. He's got blood on his... All right. Matt, can you go get me an envelope bag? That gun came out of his right front pocket, right? I'll go get a brown paper bag. I have some. Another deputy's body-worn camera shows the same exchange, but from a different angle.

They see blood on Frank Thompson's clothes, and it appears that deputies pull coins and gloves out of Frank Thompson's pockets. I'll cut them out. He's got blood on his pocket. All right. Matt, can you go get me an envelope bag? Gloves, flat. That gun came out of his right front coat pocket, right? I'll go get a bra and paper bag. I have some.

Here. Bring it up back here. Let's get him in the car and get him warm. All right. Okay. Come on, bud. After deputies take Frank Thompson into custody, the detectives interviewed him at the police station. The complaint says Franklin Thompson admitted to shooting the victim during a verbal altercation. An affidavit goes on to say that Thompson admitted to shooting his daughter

several times. He was booked into the jail on a murder charge and searched from head to toe. The corrections staff even searched his hair to make sure that he wasn't hiding anything there. That's pretty standard. Then Thompson walked off to a holding cell. Local TV stations reported that a prosecutor said during Thompson's bond hearing that the shooting happened during an argument over smoking in the house. A GoFundMe page describes Heather Thompson as a hardworking soul, a giver who always put others first and a light to everyone fortunate enough to know her. I want to bring in Jay Clark. He is a defense attorney based in Cincinnati, Ohio, near where this homicide happened, but he is not affiliated with this case in any way.

So, Jay, this is a pretty startling case. I was shocked when I saw it pop up on the news. down the street near his home. And the deputies, the detectives say in court documents that he admitted to shooting his daughter several times over this argument over smoking. So what are your first thoughts when you hear about this case? I guess from the defense attorney perspective, from what little bit I know and the link that you sent me, he may have some mental health issues. And I don't know to the extent or whatever, but just based on the facts, they seem like something where no one would be shot. And if he's got the documented history of mental health, that may or may not have contributed to what he thought he was doing at the time. Yeah, and we're still very early on in this process. The body camera video shows very clearly the police,

the deputies, I should say, pull up. He is walking down the street, and they tell him to stop and to get down. He obeys the commands. He does everything they say, and they slap the cuffs on him. They find a gun in his pocket. They take it out of his pocket, and he's got blood on his pocket. So, I mean, these are things that are very damning for him. They are not good facts, as you would say. They're probably very bad facts. So it does raise some concerns that maybe there are some mental health issues. I don't know that it's a question

of who done it, as opposed to more importantly, why or what caused it to happen. And that could affect the culpability that he has in terms of different offenses, murder and some sort of manslaughter. And I don't know, maybe beyond that. There's a lot we still don't know. You know, the prosecutor at the bail hearing said that this started over a verbal argument over smoking in the house. And this guy, Frank Thompson, had cigarettes in his t-shirt pocket. The cops take the cigarettes off of him. So that's apparently how this all started. So that's another piece of

this puzzle. He's a 64-year-old man, daughter's 24. There's been some talk too. I saw one news report talking about how somebody said he may have had a brain surgery in the recent past as well. So what do you do if you're the defense attorney looking into this and there's that fact out there? I think we have to look at how good of his story and he is, get the information from his medical care, assuming that the report is accurate, that he had some type of brain surgery. I'm not a doctor, but I think that's a good place to start looking to see what portion of his brain, what was the reason for it, what were the long-term consequences after the surgery, any side effects, any complications he might have had. And I think it's easy to say he's walking down the street with a gun in his hand, blood on his pocket. We don't know if the verbal altercation escalated and somehow she became an aggressor towards him and he defended himself. We don't know if he was provoked some other way,

or if it was, you know, as it seems to be portrayed, he shot her without any ability to defend himself or without any legal justification. I think there's just too much unknown right now. But I've had a lot of cases where verbal altercations escalate to some physical confrontation. And sometimes it's self-defense and sometimes it's not. We don't know. I'm assuming we may have some type of witness here, possibly. I mean, in the court documents, it makes it sound like Frank Thompson gave a full statement. It was audio and videotaped, video recorded. But we also have the sister of Heather Thompson, who was likely interviewed. She called 911. We don't know if she actually witnessed what happened, but we know they

all live together. She's the younger sister. She tried to perform CPR, but she may have witnessed part of this, all of it, or none of it. So she may have some information here as well. So interviewing her could be very important to get information about what happened, if she has that information, and the family dynamics. I think it also, in addition to fact witness for that day and time, she should be able to fill in, I would think, on the difference in the man from before his surgery and after surgery. And I don't know how long ago the surgery was, but being his daughter, I'm assuming she's seen him at all different stages of that process and would be able to fill in some of the gaps that we don't have now in information and how that has affected him. The attorney for the Frank Thompson, I contacted his lawyer and obviously he was just assigned to this case just in the last day or two. So there's not a whole lot that he can say about it. He's just getting the information, hasn't even gotten the discovery yet, may not have even met with his client, but he gave me a statement saying that his name

is Jim Moore. And he gave me a statement saying he's presumed innocent and he's pleaded not guilty and we'll let the process move forward and get a just resolution. So what is your first step here, Jay? If you're the defense attorney, if you're in Jim Moore's shoes, do you interview him first? Do you wait for the discovery? I mean, I'm always curious.

Do you go in and you're saying, what happened? I mean, do you ask your client what happened in a case like this? Because as you said, this is not a whodunit. It's a why did it happen? Right. Why did it happen? What I generally do is ask the client, why did the police think you, whatever, shot your daughter, burglarized a house,

had drugs in it, whatever it is. And I try to approach it from a non-judgmental way because that doesn't help the attorney-client relationship. Once I get his general information of the account of the events, assuming he can provide it, while I'm doing that, I'm also looking, especially knowing he might have had some brain issues in terms of a surgery. And we don't know if the tumor, assuming we don't know about that. So I would try to get the information to start running that down, get people who know him to see what he's like personality wise, demeanor wise, since the surgery. And then if possible, if she would talk, try to get an investigator to go talk to the sister. And I don't know the environment this happened in,

maybe neighbors, maybe people across the street, anything at all like that, to try to get as much information as I can about what happened that day. That way, when I get the discovery, I have a better idea of if there might be something missing or how it fits into what I've already been told. Well, it's a really sad case. I mean, we have a family now torn apart by this. I mean, Heather Thompson was a young woman and she's no longer with us. Her sister. I mean, it's really sad. Tried to save her life. The 911 call, we didn't even play most of it because it's just heartbreaking. So we'll see how it plays out. They set a million dollar bond. He's got a public defender. He's not going to be able to post that. So he's going to be sitting in the Hamilton County Justice Center, I think, for some time as this case for the process.

Yeah, it'll take a while to get the all the discovery from the prosecutor's office. You've already mentioned body worn camera witness statement, whatever they have gathered. It will still take a while for that to get to the defense to review. Yeah, most definitely. Jay Clark, thank you so much. Appreciate it. You're welcome. Have a good day, Anjanette. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.