TW: Suicide
The family of a Stafford County man who died by suicide on Sunday while in custody at Rappahannock Regional Jail is seeking answers – and justice.
Christopher Lee Franklin, 40, had been in custody since his arrest on Jan. 17 on several charges – including two counts of rape – dating to troubling incident involving an ex-girlfriend.
The details surrounding his July 26 death have not been released by jail officials; his family, 10 hours away in Alabama, have confirmed with a witness to the conditions leading up to his death that Franklin died by suicide.
We reached out to the jail to inquire into Franklin’s death, and have not heard back at the time of publication.
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“Chris was a former Marine who served for 10 years and later worked as a contractor under the FBI with Top Secret clearance. He was also a son, brother, father and veteran,” his sister, Elizabeth Self, an addiction recovery administrator in Springville, Ala., told me.
The family had raised concerns about Franklin’s mental health with people connected to his case and custody, “including the investigator, public defender’s office, an advocate, and the jail social worker,” Self said.
“Chris now has a mother with no son, four children that have no father, and three sisters that have no brother,” said Self, adding that the family was looking forward to the opportunity for their brother to prove his innocence at trial. “My brother’s blood stains the hands of every individual that had knowledge of his physical and mental condition and did nothing. Every person who failed to treat him like a human being providing the very basic of needs. Every person who disregarded his pleas for help as he begged and cried every day for it.
“He was a protected disabled veteran who fought for this country. Who will fight for him? Who will fight for them all?” Self said.
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Franklin had “dealt with documented depression, PTSD and anxiety,” Self told me, likely a function of his time in the Marines – which is certainly not uncommon.
The incident that led to his incarceration was still being adjudicated. Per reporting from Fredericksburg.com, Franklin allegedly broke into the home of his ex-girlfriend, whom he had dated for 10 years before breaking up, crawling through a window, retrieving a gun and confronting her while she was having sex with a co-worker.
A lawyer for Franklin requested that he be released on bond, since he had no prior criminal record, and that his family in Alabama had agreed to take him in as he awaited trial, but the request was denied.
As the reality of the situation facing him kicked in, Franklin’s mental health deteriorated quickly, according to his sister.
In phone calls with family members before his death, Franklin described harrowing conditions inside the jail – no heat during the winter, no air conditioning during the summer, saying, regarding the heat in the summer, that “it is so hot the walls are sweating.”
The lights in the jail were left on 24 hours a day without dimming, he said.
He could not eat the food he was served, his sister said, because he did not have teeth.
He also told family about the lack of medical care and needed medication, including medicine related to eye surgery and medication for the PTSD, depression and anxiety.
“We spoke with Chris on the phone every day, walked him through breathing techniques to help calm his anxiety, through grounding exercises to steady the panic attacks that would come and last for hours, telling him to hang on, giving him encouragement,” Self said.
“We ordered him food that he could eat because he was so hungry, and even that was limited,” she said. “We bought clothing for him in the winter because it was so cold he had gotten sick. We made calls on his behalf, sat through his bail hearing 10 hours away, took care of his belongings from his home.”
Self said the jailers initially placed Franklin on suicide watch, due to the documented mental health issues, and that despite him repeatedly reporting suicidal thoughts to jail staff and guards over the course of his incarceration, he was later taken off the suicide watch list.
On the day of his death, per the accounts related to family by witnesses, guards that were supposed to make rounds every 20 minutes did not check on Franklin’s status for more than an hour.
By the time staff did check on him, Franklin had taken his own life.
His passing, on July 26, was a week ahead of the next scheduled hearing in his criminal case, which was scheduled for Monday, Aug. 3, according to the Virginia online court system database.
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“Our family is seeking answers. We believe there are urgent questions that should be asked publicly,” Self told me, listing the questions in an email.
- “Why was suicide watch removed after repeated reports of suicidal thoughts?”
- “Why were required safety checks not conducted according to their own protocol?”
- “Why is there no updated lighting that allows for dimming inside the cells?”
- “Why was his cell window allegedly covered, if that was prohibited?”
- “What medical and mental health care was provided or denied?”
- “Why, when jail officials, legal representatives, and prosecutors made aware of the seriousness of his mental health crisis before his death, no action was taken?”
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Chris Graham
