More vivid testimony is heard Thursday afternoon in the Grand Rapids federal trial of four men charged with a 2020 kidnap conspiracy, as the Detroit Free Press relays:
A second convicted kidnap plotter took the stand with explosive testimony, telling jurors he joined the plan to snatch Gov. Gretchen Whitmer because he was on a suicide mission.
"I was hoping that I would be killed in the process," Kaleb Franks testified. "I no longer wanted to live."
Franks explained that he had mentally fallen apart following the deaths of three family members in one year: his mom, stepdad and stepbrother. He did not say how they died.
Kaleb Franks: "I no longer wanted to live." (Photo: Kent County Sheriff's Office)
The 27-year-old Waterford resident accepted a plea agreement last month rather than risk possible life imprisonment if convicted by jurors. He was in court a day after final testimony by Ty Garbin of Hartland Township in Livingston County, sentenced to six years after pleading guilty last summer.
Franks' plea document says he "knows [the co-defendants] were not entrapped, based on personal observation and discussions" -- a critical point restated Thursday.
He and Garbin testified against former Wolverine Watchmen militia allies Adam Fox, Barry Croft Jr., Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta, accused in October 2020 of plotting against Michigan's governor because of Covid safeguards they saw as too strict.
Jurors were shown this rifle, held by Franks in an evidence exhibit. It's fitted with a suppressor ("silencer") to reduce sound and muzzle flash. (Photo: U.S. Attorney's Office)
More from the Freep:
Franks spent two hours on the stand Thursday, telling jurors about numerous aspects of the alleged kidnap plot, including:
How the group got tired of peaceful protests and wanted to do something more intense
How they discussed what would happen if they got caught
How he spent $3,600 on a pair of night vision goggles for the plan
And how “concern was very high” that FBI agents had infiltrated their group – which they had.
... Croft had proposed assaulting whatever security detail was present [at Whitmer's second home], using a modified AR-15 outfitted with a grenade launcher, Franks said. He added that Croft discussed with him how to make the explosive projectiles out of legally available smoke bombs. ...
The defense will cross-examine Franks on Friday morning.
Former assistant federal prosecutor Patrick Miles, now a business law attorney at a Southfield firm, told Gongwer News Service recently that the confessed insiders “will help show it was more than these guys talking or texting about wanting to do something bad. It will show they were taking meaningful steps and what those were."
Tuesday and Wednesday coverage:
Whitmer Kidnap Was Seen as 'Boogaloo' Kickoff in Michigan and Beyond, Plotter Testifies
