Suspects arrested in 90s murder cases

JSO: Federal grant money funds DNA tests for cold cases

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Police in Jacksonville have arrested suspects in connection with cases from the 1990s.

Michael Franklin, 31, of Jacksonville, is charged with first-degree murder, armed robbery with a firearm or other deadly weapon, burglary with assault or battery, armed sexual battery on a victim 12 years of age or older, and kidnapping and inflicting bodily harm or terrorizing a victim or other person.

He is accused of killing 51-year-old Michael Bouey in May 1998 during a home invasion, robbery and sexual assault.

Police said other suspects remain at large in the 1998 case. Police said a woman was also raped during the assault.

They said Franklin's DNA came back with a match from evidence at the crime scene.

The DNA test was conducted as the result of a $500,000 federal grant that the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office received in 2011. JSO told the media Tuesday they plan on closing a lot more cold cases now that they have the means to conduct DNA tests.

"We are bringing closure to these families which is important to us," said Michael Williams, JSO Homeland Security Director.

JSO Homeland Security Director Michael Williams said 500 cold cases qualify to be used with the grant money, but currently 78 cases are being targeted.

Police said they used DNA evidence to find another suspect in a case from 1999. Investigators said another man, Michael Jerome Williams, 51, sexually battered and killed Andrea Clements off North Main.

Franklin served time in separate case

According to the Department of Corrections website, Franklin served nine years in prison for murder and robbery as the result of a case in 2000 in Jacksonville. He was released in 2009.

Franklin, then 18, and then-17-year-old Warren Grant tried to rob a Prime Stop Food Store clerk at gunpoint while another friend waited outside in a getaway car, investigators said. The store's owner saw the commotion from his office, and investigators said he fatally shot Grant as the teen was reaching into one of his own pockets.

Grant and the other suspects were charged with felony murder and robbery.