Confessed killer's lawyers demand access to reporter's notes, tapes

By The Associated Press

09.30.02

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TAVARES, Fla. — Lawyers for a confessed killer are demanding the Orlando Sentinel turn over all notes and audio tapes of interviews with him.

Quawn Franklin's attorneys sent a subpoena on Sept. 26 to Sentinel reporter Mark K. Matthews, requiring him to appear in court Oct. 14 with the notes and tapes.

David Bralow, an attorney for the Sentinel, said the newspaper would challenge the subpoena.

"We will file a motion to quash," he said on Sept. 26.

In a January interview with the Sentinel at the Lake County Jail, Franklin confessed to killing security guard Jerry Lawley in December. He also admitted his involvement in the December beating of retired substitute teacher Alice Johnson of Leesburg.

Franklin's trial on the charges related to the beating is scheduled to begin Oct. 14.

In another jailhouse interview earlier this month, Franklin told the Sentinel he killed pizza deliveryman John Horan in December. Leesburg police on Sept. 26 recommended Franklin be charged in that slaying.

Assistant State Attorney Bill Gross said prosecutors would call a grand jury in the next few weeks to seek a first-degree murder indictment in Horan's death. Franklin, 25, already is facing charges of first-degree murder and attempted murder in the Lawley and Johnson cases.

The state attorney's office initially subpoenaed Matthews in January, shortly after his first interview with Franklin.

The Sentinel argued a state law generally protects journalists from having to give to authorities information obtained in gathering news. An audio version of the January interview and a written transcript were posted on the newspaper's Web site earlier this month. Once the information was made public, the Sentinel provided copies to the state.

"The whole issue became moot when the Sentinel complied with our request," Gross said. "We withdrew our subpoena."

But the Sentinel cannot post information from the second confession interview on the Web because the tape is inaudible, Bralow said.

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