The Murder of Franklin Bonner

Who Was Franklin Bonner?.

Franklin Augustus “Kookie” Bonner was born on November 30, 1940 in Chattanooga, Tennessee to Ellis Bo and Gustava Bonner. He had a brother named Lefarron and was a graduate of Howard High School in 1958. He worked for the City of Chattanooga for 31 years before retiring.

Franklin was married to Cora Mae Battle Bonner, however, she preceded him in death. He was remarried to Linda Bonner and Franklin had four children, Preson, Stephanie, Tira, and Taffany. Franklin also had several nieces and nephews as well as eight grandkids – Vernard, Preston, Ciera, Tracey, Rafael, Sescil, Deja, and Christopher. Franklin had many friends and was particularly close with Billie and Bonnie Blaylock and JoAnn Hopkins.

Linda Bonner returned home from work around 5:20 pm on January 16th, 2009 and when she walked into her home, she found it ransacked and in shambles. She also found her 68-year-old husband, Franklin, duct taped to a chair by his wrists. His ankles were also bound in duct tape and both his nose and mouth were covered in duct tape. Franklin wasn’t breathing so Linda immediately called 911.

When the police arrived at the Bonner home, it was clear to them that Franklin’s murder had happened during a robbery. Franklin was known around the Chattanooga area as “lottery man” because he always had cash on him. It is reported that Franklin and Linda sold small amounts of marijuana out of their home.

The police began their investigation right away and found out pretty quickly that the last person Franklin spoke to was a woman named Shirley Bumpass. Karl Fields was the original investigator for this case and when he spoke with Shirley, she stated that she called Franklin that morning. Shirley told Fields she later went over to Franklin’s home, approximately 2.5 miles from her home, to purchase marijuana from him. With this information, police considered Shirley to be the last person who had seen Franklin alive.

At the scene, police found 11 different fingerprints throughout the home, but in 2009, there were no matches to any of them. An autopsy was performed by Medical Examiner James Metcalfe. There were signs of blunt force trauma to Franklin’s body, however, Metcalfe determined that the cause of death was suffocation.

Then a jailhouse informant named Nicholas Cheaton contacted the police to tell them what he knew about the murder. According to Cheaton, his cousin, Mallory Vaughn, confessed to killing Franklin. According to an article by Zack Peterson in the Chattanooga Times Free Press, investigators say that Cheaton gave details that matched the crime scene. It is reported that Cheaton offered this information in the hopes of receiving less severe prosecution on charges that he was facing at this time.

Police spoke with Mallory Vaughn in 2009, 2010, and 2011 in regard to Franklin’s murder, and was reportedly cooperative, but no arrest was made. Then Franklin’s case went cold.

In 2015, Karl Fields was fired from the Chattanooga Police Department for “unbecoming conduct and neglect of duty.” A woman who had filed a rape report accused Fields of sending texts to her that were sexual in nature. She alleged that he would flirt with her, flatter her, offer her rides, and ask her to send nude photos to him. She claimed that they never had sex, despite his persistence. The woman provided hundreds of texts to the police and Fields was accused of deleting some of the messages on his side. The TBI, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, investigated these claims and it was determined that the relationship was consensual.

In April of 2016, a Grand Jury indicted Fields on charges of official misconduct and tampering with or fabricating evidence in one of his cases. However, in 2017, Judge Barry Steelman dismissed the case against him. As a note, an article by Local 3 News states that this was in regard to a rape investigation into James Works, Jr, but in the Women & Crime episode on Franklin’s case, they stated that it was in regard to this case. So, unclear?

With the case going cold, Franklin’s family still didn’t have answers or closure. They continued to press authorities to reopen the case and finally in 2018, the Hamilton County District Attorney’s Cold Case did just that. Once the case was reopened, Mallory Vaughn was now being charged in the felony murder of Franklin Bonner because of the information given by Nicholas Cheaton.

Then on June 14th, 2018, 23-year-old Angel Bumpass was arrested in connection to Franklin’s murder. Angel had failed to appear in court for a speeding ticket in 2017, so when Franklin’s case was reopened in 2018, they found that her prints were a match to two of the prints found on the sticky side of the duct tape. She was arrested for felony murder and the attempt to commit especially aggravated robbery. Felony murder is the result of someone dying during a violent or dangerous act.

Angel Bumpass was raised in Chattanooga under difficult circumstances. When she was six, her mother, Tamika Bumpass, was incarcerated for the attempted murder of a police officer. Tamika shot the officer in the chest, then turned the firearm on a bystander, then stole his vehicle. The officer survived the shooting and Tamika ended up pleading guilty on thirty different charges. She is still incarcerated today. According to Angel in A&E’s series Accused: Guilty or Innocent?, her father was barely in the picture.

Angel was raised by her grandparents, Shirley and Baylis, along with her brothers. It was a strict environment to be raised in, and according to Angel, her grandparents never said I love you or tucked them in at night. Both of her grandparents and her brothers had criminal pasts as well.

At 16-years-old, Angel left home with a friend and moved to Louisville, Kentucky. At the time of her arrest in 2018, she was 23-years-old, had been accepted into a nursing program, and was doing well for herself and her two daughters.

We used the A&E series, Accused: Guilty or Innocent? Cold Case Killer or Innocent Teenage Girl as a main source for this episode. During the show, we follow Angel and her defense team as they prepare for trial and subsequently as they go through trial. Angel’s attorneys were Andrea Hayduk and Garth Best who worked out of Chattanooga. The trial took place in Tennessee as that was where the murder happened, but Angel, who was out on a $30,000 bond, still lived in Kentucky – a 300 mile drive. While preparing for trial, Angel would have to take time off of work and make the 300 mile drive to and from Chattanooga when necessary.

Angel was just thirteen when the murder took place and was facing up to sixty years in prison. Mallory Vaughn, who was also charged with Franklin’s murder, was to be her co-defendant at trial. The state made the decision to try the cases together in one trial. Though, Vaughn had different attorneys.

Upon arrest, Angel stated that she had nothing to do with Franklin’s murder. She has since maintained that statement and the fact that she did not know Franklin, had never been to his home, and that she did not know Mallory Vaughn. In fact, she had never even heard his name until her arrest.

The only evidence against Angel were the two fingerprints found on the sticky side of the tape at the scene. The defense needed to determine how Angel’s fingerprints ended up at a murder scene of a man she didn’t know. Her defense team was not putting on an affirmative defense, they were saying that she was not at the scene.

January 16th, 2009 was a Friday, and a school day for Angel. The investigation determined that Franklin was murdered between two and four that afternoon. Angel’s bus dropped her at her stop at 2:45, which would have given her an hour and fifteen minutes to go 2.5 miles down the road to rob Franklin, tape him up, and leave the scene. The defense tested this out and if Angel had walked, it would have taken her 44 minutes to get there. That would leave her with fifteen minutes to bind Franklin with duct tape, ransack the home, and leave.

The defense team spoke with Angel’s grandparents in preparation for the trial to determine if Shirley should testify. When they spoke with Shirley, she stated that she doesn’t remember speaking with Franklin that day. When presented with the fact that the prosecution has phone records showing that, she said that she wouldn’t recognize the phone number she had ten years ago.

Baylis, Angel’s grandfather, told Andrea that he used to do maintenance work for Franklin and saw him once or twice a week. He said that he believed the duct tape found at the scene could have come from his garage because he was there frequently enough. He also said that Angel spent time in the garage during crafts and it was plausible that her fingerprints could be on duct tape that came from that garage.

Two weeks before the trial was set to begin, new evidence was presented to the defense. There was a recorded prison phone call between Angel’s brothers. One brother told the other that Angel had been arrested, and they were discussing how she was only thirteen at the time. One brother kept saying, “Think about it, think hard.” It doesn’t definitively give evidence to anything, but it is definitely curious. At this point in their preparations, Angel’s lawyers let her know that they can get a Power of Attorney set up for her to take care of her daughters if she is found guilty. They also give her the opportunity to tell them if she knows anything at all about the murder, but she maintains that she doesn’t.

As the trial lingers closer, the defense is trying to determine whether or not Angel should take the stand and testify. They held a mock trial to see how she would hold up under pressure. They didn’t come to a firm decision at that point, but Angel was determined to testify. She wanted to say to everyone that she didn’t do this.

When the trial began, the evidence presented against Angel Bumpass and Mallory Vaughn was separate. Meaning, her fingerprints being at the scene didn’t implement him and the jailhouse testimony of Nicholas Cheaton didn’t implement her.

In opening statements, Angel’s defense team really drove in the fact that there were nine unidentified prints at the scene – they didn’t belong to Angel, Mallory Vaughn, Franklin, or his wife. The main argument for Mallory Vaughn was that Nicholas Cheaton waited a year to come forward with his information, it barely met probable cause, and he wasn’t considered a reliable witness. He stated that his client had given his fingerprints and DNA swabs willinging and it didn’t match anything found at the scene.

The prosecution’s case was that Mallory Vaughn and Angel Bumpass worked together to rob Franklin and it ended with his murder. They believed that Angel used the duct tape to tie Franklin up at the direction of Vaughn and they both evaded justice for ten years.

Franklin’s wife, Linda, was the first witness called by the prosecution to testify. She described finding her husband upon arriving home from work and it was extremely emotional. The next witness the prosecution called was Elizabeth Reid, a forensic scientist with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations. She was the key witness for the state. She testified that the fingerprints found on the sticky side of the duct tape were a match to Angel Bumpass. When cross examined by the defense, she did state that it cannot be determined when a print was put somewhere. She also stated that Angel’s prints only matched the two found on the duct tape, not any other prints found in the home.

Next, Karl Fields, the original lead investigator was called by the prosecution. He claimed that Shirley Bumpass did call Franklin on the morning of the murder, and that she went to his home to buy marijuana later that day. The strategy was to connect Angel to Franklin via his grandmother. Shirley Bumpass was then called by the prosecution and on the stand, she said that she did not recall making a call to Franklin that day. She also did not recall purchasing marijuana from him around 2:15 that afternoon. She stated that Angel never went to Franklin’s home with her.

The final witness for the prosecution was Nicholas Cheaton, who was incarcerated for armed robbery at the time. Cheaton testified that Mallory Vaughn told him that he was going to rob Franklin Bonner. When he saw the news the next night, he spoke with Vaughn who allegedly told him that he had duct taped Franklin up. He made no mention of a female accomplice. The phone call between Angel’s brothers was not admitted in court as it would have likely been deemed hearsay.

The defense’s key witness was Angel’s grandfather, Baylis. On the stand, Baylis described how Angel did arts and crafts in his workshop and said that he typically kept duct tape in there. He stated that he knew Franklin and often did handyman work for him, and because of that, it was possible that he left a roll of duct tape from his garage at Franklin’s home. In the end, the defense decided not to have Angel testify.

After the defense rested its case and closing statements were made, the jury was sent for deliberation. After just five hours of deliberating, the jury was back with its decision. Mallory Vaughn was found not guilty on all charges. Angel Bumpass was found guilty for the first degree felony murder charge as well as the attempt to commit especially aggravated robbery charge. Angel Bumpass was sentenced to sixty years in prison and would be eligible for parole in 2070.

Angel attempted to appeal in December of 2019 and then again in April of 2021, but there were Covid delays. Then in August of 2022, presiding Judge Tom Greenholtz granted a defense motion for a new trial and vacated Angel’s convictions. He ruled that there were several errors that occurred during Angel’s trial that collectively required Angel to receive a new trial.

First was the ruling that disallowed the introduction of Angel’s eighth grade yearbook photo into evidence. Judge Greenholtz noted that the defense had not disclosed its intention to use the photo prior to trial and said that the exclusion was evidence as a sanction “went beyond what was necessary to cure any prejudice.” Next, he said that the prosecution had elicited information that had been ruled inadmissible. This was in regard to the defense having not sought DNA analysis on a hair follicle found near one of the fingerprints linked to Angel. The result of this was the suggestion that Angel had a burden to prove her innocence.

Judge Greenholtz also criticized the defense for failing to make appropriate objections to the prosecution’s attempts to link Angel and Mallory Vaughn through a “years-later connection” with a relative of Angel’s. He also noted that Nicholas Cheaton had testified that he was not familiar with the Bumpass name and that he did not know Angel. He noted, “Taking all of Mr. Cheaton’s testimony in a light most favorable to the State, Cheaton did not connect or implicate Bumpass” in the murder. Lastly, Judge Greenholtz said that the evidence was insufficient to establish that Angel had committed armed robbery and without the armed robbery, a felony murder charge cannot stand.

Angel was released from prison on November 3, 2022 on bond pending a trial. A local Chattanooga businessman, Kenneth Adams, the owner of K.A. Logistics, posted her bond. He said that he failed to see a criminal when looking at Angel, and what he saw was kindness.

On August 8th, 2023, Judge Amanda Dunn dismissed all charges against Angel Bumpass. The charges were dismissed without prejudice which means that if new evidence is presented, Angel could be tried again. The dismissal came after two polygraph exams were administered – one by the prosecution and one by the defense. Both exams showed no deception when Angel denied involvement in Franklin’s murder.

District Attorney Coty Wamp stated that a conviction doesn’t always equal justice and that it’s the State’s role to seek out the truth. She said that the State of Tennessee has never given up on this case. Angel’s new attorney, William Massey, said that they were prepared to go to trial and weren’t expecting this outcome for Angel.

In regard to the polygraphs, it is noted that despite not being admissible in court, Wamp told the court that Angel continually and consistently maintained her innocence. She also had agents with the TBI look at the results and they agreed that Angel had passed. Wamp also noted that investigators again spoke with Mallory Vaughn, but he had no information to give.

After the dismissal, Massey said of DA Wamp that it’s “one thing to be tough on crime, but another to be willing to seek justice.”

Since her release from prison and her acquittal, Angel is living in Kentucky with her daughters trying to rebuild her life. She is reportedly studying to be an aesthetician. In regard to her freedom, she said, “I feel happy and blessed.”

After Mallory Vaughn’s acquittal, he has been indicted on drug and weapons charges in Hamilton County. According to Hamilton County Court records, he has six methamphetamine charges, one for cocaine, and two for fentanyl. Two thumbs up!

As for justice for Franklin Bonner, the case remains open. Hopefully, the nine remaining fingerprints are identified and the case can be closed and the family can find some kind of closure.