A Douglas County jury will resume deliberations Friday to determine the punishment for Tracen Franklin, who was convicted last week in the 2010 murder of Bobby Tillman.
Thursday morning, jurors asked to see an hour-and-a-half-long video of the police interview of Franklin, which had been played early in the trial, before the defendant was convicted. In the video, the then-18-year-old college student gave exacting details of the Nov. 6, 2010, party that ended in Tillman’s violent death.
Franklin initially denied taking part in the unprovoked attack that began after his friend, Emanuel Boykins, threw the first punch. Later in the interview, however, Franklin confesses that he punched Tillman several times and kicked him once.
Tillman died of a lacerated heart.
Boykins pleaded guilty last spring to avoid a death sentence and is serving life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years. Two others charged with murdering the 18-year-old Tillman, Horace Coleman and Quantez Mallory, have not yet gone to trial, but theirs are not death penalty cases.
The jury — which met for about 40 minutes Tuesday and all day Wednesday and Thursday — is considering sentences of death, life without the possibility of parole or life with the possibility of parole.
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