New Details About The Married Dentist Who Murdered His Secret Girlfriend's Baby — And Then Tried To Hire Someone To Kill Her Too
Nobody close to the couple suspected such a disturbing event.
Facebook Bert Franklin, a 35-year-old dentist from Tulsa, Oklahoma, was found guilty of the first-degree murder of his girlfriend’s 19-month-old baby, Lincoln Lewis.
Franklin, a married man with four children, was secretly dating Roxanne Randall in 2016. Two days before his arrest on July 18, 2016, he allegedly dropped the baby violently on his head and proceeded to kick him. Part of the disturbing act was caught on a surveillance camera in the house, but Franklin’s defense team insists that he was kicking the dog.
Disturbingly, after abusing the child to the point of losing consciousness, Franklin is seen on camera picking him up and cradling him while casually eating a slice of pizza.
During the act, Randall was in the house but was not in the room where the incident occurred. She came into the room after hearing a thud and is seen in the footage walking down the stairs into the living room. Franklin initially dismissed her concerns about the sound, saying that he had thrown a ball for the dog.
He also told her that her child was sound asleep.
In reality, Lincoln Lewis had suffered a skull fracture and a subdural hematoma, or brain bleed. The day after the abuse, Randall noticed that her child was having trouble breathing.
She told Dr. Phil in a televised interview that around 2 a.m., she thought that she heard Lincoln coughing and proceeded to bring him some cough medicine. However, the sounds that she heard were not coughing. Rather, it was the sound of gurgling.
“I put {the medicine and bottle} down and I grabbed him. And when I grabbed him, his body was limp,” she told Dr. Phil while holding back tears.
She says that she then told Franklin to call 911, but instead of taking action, he stared at her from the side of the bed.
The entire case is shocking and deeply disturbing, but it doesn’t end there.
In addition to the first-degree murder charge, Franklin was also found guilty of soliciting the murder of Roxanne Randall. News 9 reports that, as he approached the date of the trial, Franklin conspired with fellow jail inmates to have Roxanne killed in order to avoid her testifying against him.
A source close to the couple told People Magazine that nobody would have expected this to happen. The couple was very close and had been seeing each other in secret for almost a year.
However, much of their relationship was a facade.
Franklin led Randall to believe that he was in the process of divorcing his wife and kept two Facebook accounts with modified privacy in order to maintain a separate image for each of the women. He had even met Randall’s parents, who reportedly adored him.
Nobody expected that the successful dentist was capable of murder, let alone leading such an elaborate double life.
After the trial, Randall urges others to be aware that criminals and abusers aren’t always easy to identify.
“They often hide among us as successful people and loving fathers,” she said, alluding the perceived fatherly relationship between Franklin and her son. She says that her love for her son will never diminish and that he is still “very much a part of {the} family.”
Although sentencing will not take place until Oct. 19, jurors have decided to pursue life without parole for the death of Lincoln Lewis and an additional life sentence for solicitation of the murder of Roxanne Randall.
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